blifornia 

gional 

jilitv 


XT' 


DOMESTIC    DUELS 


OR 


EVENING  TALKS  ON  ™E  WOMAN 
QUESTION 


Conversations  Relating  to  the  Domestic,  Social,  Industrial, 

Historical  and  Political  Phases  of  the 

Subject 


BY  ERNEST  A.  GIRVIN 


E.  D.  BRONSON  &  CO.,  PUBLISHERS 

933  .MARKET  STREET 

San  Francisco 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress  in  the  year  1898,  by 

E.  A.  GIRVIN 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


PREFACE. 

This  work  has  been  Avritten  with  the  earnest  purpose  of 
directing  public  attention  to  truths  of  vital  importance,  which 
bear  upon  the  relations  of  the  sexes,  the  welfare  of  society,  and 
especially  the  well-being  of  the  homes  of  our  land.  Upon  the 
recognition  of  these  truths  by  the  people  generally  depends  the 
future  of  this  nation.  The  respective  spheres  of  men  and  women 
are  not  to  be  determined  by  mere  caprice  or  inclination,  or  even 
by  the  fashions  of  any  particular  time.  They  are  immutably 
fixed  by  laws  far  beyond  human  control,  and  when  either  of  the 
sexes  in  any  society  persistently  violates  these  laws,  or  oversteps 
the  narrow  limits  which  they  define,  the  whole  social  fabric 
inevitably  crumbles  into  chaos.  The  women  of  America  are 
near  this  danger  line,  and  in  the  pages  which  follow  an  effort  is 
made  to  warn  them  of  their  peril,  and  point  them  back  to  the 
old  paths  of  happiness  and  safety.  I  believe  in  the  true  prog- 
ress of  woman.  Such  progress,  however,  is  not  to  be  attained 
unless  accompanied  by  a  corresponding  elevation  of  her  friend 
and  companion,  man.  The  solidarity  of  the  human  race  is  such 
that  neither  sex  can  rise  upon  the  ruins  of  the  other,  and  any- 
thing which  tends  to  make  woman  less  womanly  or  man  less 
manly,  is  in  the  nature  of  retrogression  rather  than  progress. 

The  book  has  been  cast  in  the  form  of  conversations  between  a 
husband  and  wife,  partly  as  a  convenient  vehicle  for  the  ideas 
sought  to  be  expressed,  and  partly  with  the  object  of  rendering 
it  more  agreeable  to  the  popular  taste.  Of  course  "Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Notion  J>  are  purely  imaginary  characters,  and  nothing  that 
is  said  by  them  about  their  own  family  or  affairs  is  intended  to 
apply  either  to  the  author,  or  to  any  other  particular  person  or 
persons. 

(iii) 

2C68SPT 


IV  PREFACE. 

In  the  discussion  of  delicate  subjects  great  plainness  of  speech 
has  been  used.  This  has  been  absolutely  necessary  in  order  to 
convey  the  real  thought,  and  accomplish  the  purpose  of  the  book. 

Wherever  the  numerous  questions  involved  in  this  vast  subject 
have  been  susceptible  of  an  honest  difference  of  opinion,  I  have 
tried  to  present  both  sides  as  fairly  and  forcibly  as  possible,  and 
I  leave  my  personal  views  as  to  these  debatable  matters  to  be 
inferred  by  the  intelligent  reader. 

ERNEST  A.  GIRVIX. 

San  Francisco,  Cal.,  August  31,  1898. 


TABLE    OF   CONTENTS. 


i  'HATTER  PAGE 

I.  WHY  WOMEN  SHOULD  Do  HOUSEWORK    ...       7 

II.  THE  AMERICAN  FAMILY 15 

III.  THE  AMERICAN  FAMILY  (Continued) 25 

I V.  THE  AMERICAN  FAMILY  (Concluded)    .    .     .    .    38 
V.  EFFECT  OF  TAMPERING  WITH  THE  PROCREATIVE 

FUNCTIONS 46 

VI.     PSYCHIC  AND  PHYSIOLOGICAL  DIFFERENCES  BE- 
TWEEN THE  SEXES 56 

VII.     PSYCHIC  AND  PHYSIOLOGICAL  DIFFERENCES  BE- 
TWEEN THE  SEXES  (Continued) 69 

VIII.     PSYCHIC  AND  PHYSIOLOGICAL  DIFFERENCES  BE- 
TWEEN THE  SEXES  (Concluded) 85 

IX.     COMPARISON  BETWEEN  WOMANHOOD  IN  HEATHEN 

AND  CHRISTIAN  LANDS 100 

X.     INFLUENCE  OF  WOMEN  UPON  LIVES  AND  CHAR- 
ACTERS OF  GREAT  MEN 114 

XI.     INFLUENCE  OF  WOMEN  UPON  LIVES  AND  CHAR- 
ACTERS OF  GREAT  MEN  (Concluded)   .    .    .128 
XII.     MODERN  INVENTIONS  AND  WOMEN 145 

XIII.  SOME  OF  THE  INDUSTRIAL  PHASES  OF  THI:  QUES- 

TION         1.54 

XIV.  SOME  OF  THE  INDUSTRIAL  PHASES  OF  THE  QUES- 

TION (Concluded) 170 

XV.     HIGHER  EDUCATION  OF  WOMEN 186 

XVI.     PROGRESS  OF  WOMEN  IN  THE  PROFESSIONS  .    .  204 

XVII.  LAWLESSNESS  AS  A  MARKED  CHARACTERISTIC  OP 

THIS  AGE 220 

XVIII.  THE  POLITICAL  STATUS  OF  WOMEN 233 

XIX.     ARGUMENTS  FOR  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE 244 

XX.     ARGUMENTS  AGAINST  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE  .    .    .  256 


Mr.  Notion  Tries  to  Convince  His  Wife  That 
Women  Ought  to  do  Housework. 

"  Nothing  lovelier  can  be  found 
In  woman  than  to  study  household  good, 
And  good  works  in  her  husband  to  promote." 

— Milton. 

"Matilda,  my  dear,"  inquired  Mr.  Notion,  with  a  depreca- 
tory and  half  apologetic  air,  ' '  have  the  children  had  their  usual 
bath  this  week  ? ' ' 

' '  No,  they  have  not.  I  have  been  so  pushed  this  week  with 
one  thing  and  another  that  I  have  not  found  time  to  attend  to  it. 
The  Ladies'  Aid  Society  held  a  special  meeting  on  Monday  after- 
noon. On  Tuesday  my  time  was  taken  up  with  the  Ladies'  Home 
Missionary  Society.  I  spent  all  day  Wednesday  in  visiting  the 
poor.  Thursday  afternoon  was  fully  occupied  in  trying  to  pro- 
mote the  cause  of  female  suffrage.  Friday  I  devoted  to  temper- 
ance work;  and  to-day  I  have  been  busied  in  decorating  the 
church  for  to-morrow's  services." 

"Ahem!"  coughed  Mr.  Notion  in  that  timid,  hesitating  way 
which  indicated  that  he  was  afraid  of  hurting  his  wife's  feelings, 
and  yet  must  have  his  say,  "I  fear  that  outside  demands  upon 
your  time  and  strength  have  reached  a  point  where  your  domestic 
affairs  are  seriously  interfered  with." 

Mrs.  Notion  flushed  and  frowned. 

' '  Of  course, ' '  continued  her  husband  in  still  milder  and  more 
insinuating  tones,  ' '  there  are  so  few  who  are  either  capable  or 
willing  to  do  the  work  of  religious  and  philanthropic  institutions, 
that  I  can  readily  appreciate  the  pressure  which  is  brought  to 
bear  upon  you  by  those  who  feel  the  need  and  realize  the  value 
of  your  services.  They  have  no  idea  what  your  home  duties  are, 
or  how  much  time  and  labor  are  required  for  the  proper  care  and 
training  of  seven  children." 

The  flush  had  partially  faded  from  Mrs.  Notion's  face,  but 
she  was  still  annoyed,  and  with  considerable  asperity  exclaimed: 

(7) 


8  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

"The  chief  trouble,  Mr.  Notion,  is  that  you  do  not  supply  me 
with  sufficient  help.  Cue  servant  is  absurdly  inadequate  to  do 
the  work  of  our  large  family ;  and  if  you  are  so  particular  about 
having  your  children  bathed,  you  had  better  hire  more  help,  or 
do  it  yourself. ' ' 

Mr.  Notion  had  learned  by  long  experience  that  when  his 
wife's  feelings  were  wounded,  it  was  useless  to  reason  with  her, 
or  to  attempt  to  convince  her  that  she  was  either  illogical  or 
unjust.  So  he  simply  remarked  that  when  they  had  two  servants 
there  was  more  work  about  the  house  for  her  to  do  than  when 
they  had  only  one,  and  shifted  the  conversation  into  other  chan- 
nels by  saying:  "I  do  vrish  that  women  would  be  content  in 
their  own  peculiar  and  appropriate  sphere,  where  God  has  placed 
them,  and  where  they  are  most  charming  and  attractive.  In  her 
home  woman  can  reign  as  queen,  and  receive  the  homage  and 
admiration  of  men,  who,  when  compelled  to  compete  with  her  in 
the  daily  walks  of  life,  regard  her  with  feelings  of  mingled 
aversion  and  disdain.  Of  course,  there  are  exceptions  to  all 
rules;  but  women  should  accomplish  their  greatest  achievements 
in  the  realm  of  wifehood  and  motherhood,  and  consider  them- 
selves unfortunate  when  brought  into  rude  contact  with  the  world, 
and  compelled  in  some  industrial  or  professional  pursuit  to  earn 
an  income  for  themselves." 

By  this  time  Mrs.  Notion  had  regained  her  accustomed  com- 
posure and  mental  equipoise.  She  thought  she  saw  a  weak  place 
in  her  husband's  logic,  and  said:  "Why,  would  you  have  us 
unfortunate  creatures  household  drudges  all  our  lives  ?  Are  we 
always  to  be  merely  a  part  of  the  male  establishment,  content  to 
be  noticed  and  petted  by  our  lords  occasionally,  and  delighted 
with  the  high  privilege  of  ministering  to  their  comforts  and  pleas- 
ures?" 

"Not  at  all,"  answered  Mr.  Notion.  "The  Almighty  in  his 
wisdom  has  so  constituted  women  that  they  alone  can  bear  the 
children ;  and  it  seems  only  reasonable  to  conclude  that  they, 
and  not  the  men,  should  care  for  and  nurture  the  little  ones. 
No  woman  can  earn  her  own  living  in  the  commercial  world,  and 
bear  children.  No  woman  can  earn  her  own  living,  and  take 
care  of  children.  Hence  it  is  that  every  woman  who  goes  forth 
into  the  industrial  arena  to  compete  with  men,  really  withdraws 
from  domestic  life,  and  declines  to  assume  the  duties  and  respon- 
sibilities of  wifehood  and  maternity." 


WHY    WOMEN   SHOULD    DO    HOUSEWORK.  9 

"All  the  better  for  them,  Ned.  They  are  much  more  inde- 
pendent, and  can  wait  for  the  man  of  their  choice." 

' '  But  the  trouble  is  in  most  cases  that  the  man  of  their  choice, 
if  there  be  such  a  person,  does  not  choose  them.  For,  take  my 
word  for  it,  Matilda,  men  do  not  like  the  independent,  self-reliant, 
strong-minded  and  intensely  practical  style  of  women;  and  the 
girl  who  has  worked  for  a  long  time  in  any  employment  where 
she  is  brought  into  constant  contact  with  men,  has  greatly  dimin- 
ished her  prospects  of  acceptable  matrimony.  Of  course,  she  can 
marry  some  scrub  who  admires  her  wage-earning  ability,  and 
asks  for  nothing  better  than  to  be  supported  by  a  woman.  But 
the  true  man  does  not  marry  as  a  cold-blooded  business  proposi- 
tion. In  the  domestic  side  of  his  character  sentiment  predomi- 
nates, and  he  seeks  a  life  companion  who  is  refined,  reserved, 
and  the  delicacy  of  whose  maidenly  modesty  has  not  been  blunted 
or  impaired  in  any  degree  by  rough  jostling  with  male  competitors 
in  the  battle  for  bread.  The  man  worth  marrying  looks  forward 
longingly  to  a  happy  home,  presided  over  by  a  pure  and  accom- 
plished woman,  the  mother  of  his  children.  He  is  not  searching 
for  a  wife  who  can  try  lawsuits,  perform  surgical  operations, 
extract  teeth,  preach  sermons,  or  keep  books.  In  fact,  if  there 
is  to  be  any  difference  in  mental  power  between  his  wife  and 
himself,  he  instinctively  prefers  to  have  that  difference  in  his 
own  favor.  He  likes  to  look  up  to  his  wife  as  a  being  vastly  his 
superior  in  delicacy,  refinement,  taste,  sensibility,  sympathy,  and 
all  those  other  rare  and  subtle  qualities  which  unite  vaguely  to 
form  his  ideal  of  exalted  and  lovable  womanhood.  But  he  would 
rather  have  her  look  up  to  him  as  surpassing  her  in 'wisdom, 
strength,  courage,  justice,  knowledge  of  the  world,  and  all  other 
elements  which  constitute  manliness." 

"All  of  which  means,  my  dear  Ned,  that  man  is  a  conceited 
animal,  and  can  not  bear  the  idea  of  living  with  his  wife  on 
equal  terms." 

"Again  you  err,  Matilda.  Man  gladly  concedes  woman's 
superiority  in  all  the  beautiful  traits  which  I  have  named;  but 
he  naturally  desires  to  excel  her  in  those  characteristics  which 
qualify  him  to  act  as  her  protector." 

"  There  is  the  same  idea  in  another  form, "  interrupted  Mrs. 
Notion.  "You  love  to  patronize  and  protect  us;  but  we  are  tired 
of  being  protected  and  coddled  into  weakness,  inferiority,  and 
nothingness,  and  insist  upon  a  perfect  equality  with  men  in  every 
respect. ' ' 


10  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

' '  I  sincerely  hope  for  your  own  sakes,  Matilda,  that  the  day 
will  never  come  when  the  women  of  America  will  have  any  such 
equality,  for  you  little  realize  the  inevitable  consequences  of  such 
a  change.  The  gallantry  and  chivalrous  deference  to  the  fairer 
sex  which  now  distinguish  the  American  gentleman,  would  soon 
pass  away,  and  woman  would  have  to  look  out  for  herself,  and 
take  her  chances  in  the  rough  conflicts  of  life.  The  fact  is  that 
the  women  covet  the  privileges  of  power,  but  do  not  wish  to 
endure  its  pains  and  penalties.  I  have  never  heard  any  of  you 
insist  upon  an  equality  with  men  in  the  right  to  stand  up  in  the 
street-cars,  or  to  risk  your  precious  lives  in  the  apprehension  of 
criminals,  the  quelling  of  riots,  the  extinguishing  of  fires,  and 
the  many  other  kinds  of  rough,  hard  and  dangerous  work  which 
has  to  be  done  for  the  welfare  and  comfort  of  every  civilized 
community. ' ' 

"No,"  replied  Mrs.  Notion,  "what  we  want  is  an  opportunity 
to  show  our  intelligence,  and  to  enjoy  on  equal  terms  with  men 
the  good  things  of  life. ' ' 

"You  are  enjoying  them  now  to  a  much  greater  extent  than 
we,"  said  her  husband.  "In  the  quiet  shelter  of  your  homes 
you  are  secure  from  most  of  the  cares,  dangers,  perplexities,  and 
responsibilities  which  plague  the  men  and  make  them  gray  and 
bald  while  their  wives  retain  their  youthful  appearance.  It  is  a 
high  privilege  to  be  the  queen  of  a  refined  and  beautiful  American 
household,  and  to  realize  that  it  has  been  made  such  by  your  own 
instrumentality.  Why,  we  treat  you  as  superior  beings,  and 
defer  to  you  in  every  way.  We  lift  our  hats  when  we  meet  or 
pass  you  in  the  streets,  as  a  mark  of  respect  for  your  sex.  You 
cheerfully  accept  all  the  homage  which  we  pay  you,  and  I  have 
never  heard  even  the  most  aggressive  and  strong-minded  woman 
protest  against  the  reverential  manner  in  which  the  American 
lady  is  treated  by  the  American  gentleman." 

"That  is  all  very  well,  Edward,  but  why  shouldn't  we  retain 
your  homage  and  at  the  same  time  be  recognized  as  your  equals 
in  the  political,  commercial,  and  industrial  departments  of  life?  " 

' '  That  would  be  an  impossibility.  An  equality  with  men  in 
these  respects  would  be  for  women  a  step  downward  rather  than 
a  movement  upward,  a  defeat  instead  of  a  victory.  We  now 
delight  to  recognize  you  as  our  superiors,  and  yet  you  foolishly 
clamor  to  become  our  equals.  But  it  is  for  the  very  reason  that 
you  are  more  secluded  from  the  world,  and  consequently  more 


WHY    WOMEN    SHOULD    DO    HOUSEWORK.  11 

free  from  the  taint  which  comes  from  constant  contact  with  the 
rough  side  of  life,  that  we  venerate  you.  We  love  to  think  of 
you  as  being  made  of  finer  clay  than  ourselves,  as  being  purer, 
sweeter,  better,  more  refined  and  more  ethereal  than  we.  But 
if  you  compel  us  to  meet  you  hourly  in  the  business  arena — not 
as  occasional  visitants  from  a  lovelier,  brighter,  higher  realm,  the 
home — but  as  competitors  for  the  means  of  subsistence,  we  will 
regard  you  differently,  and  the  homage  of  men  to  women,  which 
now  constitutes  one  of  the  most  delightful  features  of  American 
life,  will  soon  become  a  thing  of  the  past." 

"Oh,  but  Ned,  the  home  is  too  narrow  for  us!  Our  aspira- 
tions and  ambitions  have  been  aroused,  and  we  are  no  longer 
satisfied  to  be  kept  on  a  little  shelf,  but  yearn  for  triumphs 
grander,  more  enduring  and  more  glorious  than  the  petty  achieve- 
ments of  the  household.  In  other  words,  we  are  tired  of  obscurity, 
and  want  to  take  a  more  conspicuous  part  on  the  stage  of  life.". 

A  shade  of  sadness  passed  over  Mr.  Notion's  expressive  face. 
He  paused  a  moment,  as  if  striving  to  concentrate  his  ideas  into 
the  fewest  and  clearest  words  possible,  and  thus  replied:  "My 
dear,  you  do  not  adequately  realize  the  lofty  position  of  your  sex 
as  the  presiding  genius  of  the  home,  that  blissful  center  of  all  that 
is  best  in  humanity,  that  beloved  spot  which  occupies  the  fore- 
most place  in  the  heart  of  every  true  man,  that  haven  of  rest, 
where  flow  in  a  ceaseless  stream  the  choicest  results  of  our  wonder- 
ful civilization.  In  the  home  we  gather  and  enjoy  the  rarest 
fruitage  of  all  our  endeavors,  and  the  treasures  of  art,  literature, 
music,  philosophy,  invention  and  commerce,  are  there  poured  out 
unstintedly  in  the  effort  to  bring  happiness  and  development  to 
wives,  mothers,  and  children. 

"As  the  poet  says,  speaking  of  man's  homage  to  woman: — 

'  The  far-fetched  diamond  finds  its  home 

Flashing  and  smouldering  in  her  hair. 
For  her  the  seas  their  pearls  reveal, 

Art  and  strange  lands  her  pomp  supply 
With  purple,  chrome,  and  cochineal, 

Ochre  and  lapis  lazuli. 
The  worm  its  golden  woof  presents. 

Whatever  runs,  flies,  dives  or  delves, 
All  doft'  for  her  their  ornaments, 

Which  suit  her  better  than  themselves.' 


12  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

' '  All  this  is  doue  that  woman  may  preside,  a  happy,  beauteous 
queen,  over  the  divinities  of  home,  that  most  sacred  and  heavenly 
of  all  spots  on  earth.  There  it  is  that  human  life  has  its  origin, 
takes  its  direction,  and  receives  its  earliest  tendencies  and  bias. 
Oh,  how  unspeakably  exalted  is  the  position  of  mistress  of  a 
beautiful  home  !  The  lady  who  there  presides  can  utilize  and 
bring  into  play  every  faculty,  every  talent,  every  accomplish- 
ment, every  kind  of  knowledge.  She  has  to  deal  with  life,  with 
character,  with  human  nature  in  its  most  interesting  and  critical 
stages.  In  her  care  and  keeping  are  immortal  spirits,  and  their 
precious  physical  casements.  Here  all  the  sciences  converge. 
Biology,  psychology,  physiology,  hygiene,  logic,  rhetoric,  theol- 
ogy, ethics,  chemistry,  physics,  architecture,  zoology,  botany, 
mathematics,  philology,  astronomy,  history — here  all  have  a  prac- 
tical application.  What,  may  I  ask  you,  is  there  narrow  in 
this?" 

"Nothing,"  laughingly  replied  Mrs.  Notion,  "but  for  the 
life  of  me  I  can't  see  what  all  those  fourteen  sciences  have  to  do 
with  housekeeping.  In  fact,  I  have  been  inclined  to  think  that 
a  good  education  was  about  wasted  on  a  woman  who  immured 
herself  in  a  house,  and  became  the  drudge  of  her  husband  and 
children.  I  have  been  under  the  impression  for  some  time  that 
the  less  such  a  woman  knew,  the  better  for  her  own  peace  of 
mind,  and  the  greater  the  probability  of  her  being  contented  with 
her  humble  lot.  But  your  views  are  really  becoming  interesting; 
and  I  am  curious  to  know  how  a  woman  can  use  a  knowledge  of 
the  sciences  you  enumerate,  in  her  conduct  of  the  home." 

"  Biology  will  enable  her  to  intelligently  superintend  and  aid 
the  development  of  the  life  forces  of  her  children.  In  conjunc- 
tion with  physiology  and  hygiene,  it  will  help  her  to  attend  to 
their  health  and  physical  growth.  Psychology  will  assist  her  to 
understand  their  individual  peculiarities  and  to  adapt  her  methods 
sagaciously  to  them.  Logic  and  rhetoric  will  be  potent  instru- 
mentalities in  inducing  them  to  obey,  not  blindly,  but  rationally. 
Theology  and  ethics  will  lend  her  their  aid  in  building  up  the 
moral  and  spiritual  character  of  the  little  ones.  Chemistry  and 
physics  will  enter  into  the  conduct  of  the  culinary  department, 
and  will  settle  many  otherwise  pu//ling  questions  which  constantly 
arise  in  the  management  of  a  modern  home.  They  will  have 
special  reference  to  the  heating,  lighting,  and  cooking  arrange- 
ments, and  to  the  application  of  motive  power  to  most  of  the 


WHY    WOMKX    SllorU)    DO    HOUSEWORK.  13 

household  work.  Architecture  will  enable  the  lady  of  the  house 
to  plan  intelligently  for  the  construction  of  her  home  at  the  very 
outset,  and  to  wisely  supervise  and  modify  the  designs  of  the 
architect.  Zoology  will  assist  her  in  the  selection  and  training  of 
the  pets  of  the  home,  and  the  other  domestic  animals  about  the 
establishment  Botany  will  be  indispensable  in  the  garden,  and 
in  the  choice  and  care  of  flowers.  Mathematics  will  come  into 
play  continually,  not  only  in  the  practical  administration  of  the 
affairs  of  the  home,  but  in  the  education  of  the  children.  Her 
knowledge  of  astronomy  will  be  a  source  of  constant  joy,  both 
to  herself  and  her  children,  and  will  render  many  an  evening 
pleasant  and  profitable  by  intelligent  observation  and  explanation 
of  the  wonders  of  the  starry  expanse  which  stretches  above  every 
home  in  the  land.  Philology  will  be  useful  in  everything  that 
pertains  to  the  speech  of  the  children,  and  the  presentation  to 
them  in  a  simple  way  of  its  primary  principles  Avill  interest  as 
well  as  instruct  them,  and  render  the  study  of  languages  a 
delight.  History  will  throw  its  light  upon  almost  every  occur- 
rence in  the  household,  and  will  give  color  and  brilliancy  to  the 
conversation  of  the  home. ' ' 

' '  And  yet  I  have  noticed, ' '  said  Mrs.  Notion  with  a  smile, 
"that  women  who  were  profoundly  ignorant  of  all  these  things, 
got  along  fairly  well  as  wives  and  mothers.  For  instance,  I 
know  of  a  few  ladies  in  this  city  who  are  compelled  to  manage 
their  household  without  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  principles 
of  psychology." 

' '  They  may  not  have  a  conscious  knowledge  of  those  princi- 
ples,"  replied  Mr.  Notion,  "but  if  they  are  really  ignorant  of 
them,  and  do  not  intuitively  adapt  themselves  to  them,  they  will 
not  succeed  in  the  discharge  of  either  their  parental  or  wifely 
functions.  In  effect,  a  practical  knowledge  of  p-ychology  is  a 
knowledge  of  human  nature,  and  the  woman  who  intelligently 
observes,  analyzes,  and  adjusts  her  methods  to  the  peculiarities 
of  the  different  members  of  her  family,  will  smooth  out  most  of 
the  wrinkles  of  life,  reduce  domestic  friction  to  the  minimum, 
and  make  the  atmosphere  of  the  home  calm  and  peaceful.  She 
will  understand  her  husband,  and  will  manage  him  with  com- 
parative ease.  Holding  in  her  dainty  hand  the  key  to  his 
character,  she  will  lock  and  unlock  the  myriad  chambers  of  his 
soul,  according  to  her  own  sweet  will.  She  will  get  the  best 
there  is  out  of  him,  instead  of  the  worst,  and  in  so  doing,  will 


14  DOMESTIC   ]>n:i.-. 

make  him  happy,  and  herself  enjoy  the  society  ot  a  man  who, 
in  the  companionship  of  another  woman,  less  wise  and  tactful, 
would  probably  be  intensely  disagreeable.  She  will  understand 
the  idiosyncrasies  of  each  of  her  children,  and  will  so  regulate 
matters  as  to  strengthen  qualities  which  are  too  weak,  and 
weaken  those  which  are  too  strong.  With  one,  perhaps,  she  will 
find  moral  suasion,  more  effective  than  force,  while  with  another 
stern  measures  will  be  more  potent  than  milder  ones.  By  show- 
ing her  children  that  she  knows  and  appreciates  all  their  good 
points,  she  will  secure  a  respectful  and  considerate  hearing  when 
she  finds  it  necessary  to  chide  them  for  their  faults." 

"  Why,  this  is  delightful,"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Notion.  "I  shall 
immediately  begin  the  study  of  psychology,  and  if  it  enables  me 
to  manage  the  children  and  their  father,  I  shall  consider  myself 
as  amply  repaid  for  all  my  toil." 

"But  there  is  still  another  phase  of  this  subject,"  continued 
her  husband,  "and  that  is  the  great  value  of  a  knowledge  of 
human  nature  in  the  selection  and  management  of  servants. 
Some  ladies,  as  you  know,  have  little  difficulty  with  their  serv- 
ants, while  others,  yourself  I  regret  to  say  among  the  number, 
are  almost  constantly  involved  in  trouble  on  this  score.  I  am 
satisfied  that  the  success  of  the  former  class  in  their  dealings  with 
domestics  is  not  to  be  attributed  to  good  luck  or  chance,  but  is 
the  result  of  their  discriminating  choice  of  help  in  the  first  place, 
and  their  diplomatic  and  adroit  procedure  and  manipulation  of 
domestic  affairs,  afterwards.  Again,  these  same  women  enjoy 
their  social  relations,  and  get  along  well  with  their  friends.  This 
is  due  to  the  same  causes,  that  is,  discretion  in  forming  friend- 
ships and  tact  in  continuing  them." 

At  this  point  Mr.  Notion  was  interrupted  in  his  remarks  by 
the  departure  of  his  wife  from  the  room.  She  politely  excused 
herself  before  doing  so,  however,  and  he  could  hear  her  inviting 
the  two  youngest  children  into  the  bathroom. 


Mr.  Notion  Gives  His  Views  on  the  "American 
Family." 


"How  sweetly  sounds  the  voice  of  a  good  woman! 
It  is  so  seldom  heard  that  when  it  speaks 
It  ravishes  all  senses." 

— Massing  er . 

"I  have  been  thinking  a  good  deal,  Ned,"  said  Mrs.  Notion 
one  evening,  "of  what  you  said  last  Saturday  about  women 
staying  at  home  and  doing  their  household  duties,  rather  than 
devoting  most  of  their  time  to  religious  and  philanthropic  work. 
I  am  sure  work  of  that  kind  must  be  done  in  the  interest  of 
humanity,  and,  if  we  who  are  willing  to  do  it,  and  who  have  the 
welfare  of  others  at  heart,  turn  away  from  it,  what  will  be  the 
result?" 

"Excuse  me,  Matilda,  but  you  have  nothing  to  do  with 
results,  when  principles  are  involved.  It  is  your  duty  to  do 
right,  regardless  of  the  consequences,  and  right  begins  at  home. 
If,  after  the  Avants  of  your  family  have  been  thoroughly  cared 
for,  you  have  time  and  strength  left  for  outside  benevolences,  all 
right;  but,  if  not,  your  duty  has  ended  as  well  as  begun  at  home, 
and  you  have  nothing  to  reprove  yourself  for  in  the  way  of 
neglecting  charitable  and  religious  enterprises." 

"Oh,  I  should  consider  myself  a  complete  failure  if  I  con- 
fined my  activities  to  my  own  family,  and  did  nothing  for  the 
great  suffering  masses  of  mankind!" 

"The  chances  are,  my  dear  Matilda,  that  if  you  neglect  your 
own  in  the  effort  to  help  others,  you  will  do  more  harm  than 
good  in  the  world.  If,  through  your  neglect,  these  children  of 
ours  were  to  become  bad  men  and  women,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  injury  they  would  do  the  race  would  much  more  than 
counterbalance  all  the  good  you  might  have  done  outside  of  your 
home. ' ' 

Mrs.  Notion  looked  unusually  thoughtful,  and  said  somewhat 
mournfully,  "I  never  regarded  the  matter  in  that  light  before." 

(15) 


16  DOMKSTIC   nrr.i.s. 

' '  The  fact  is,  my  dear  Avife,  that  there  are  plenty  of  womei 
with  no  children  of  their  own  to  look  after,  to  do  full  justice  to 
all  the  orphan  asylums,  hospitals,  sewing  circles,  missionary 
societies,  and  female  suffrage  clubs  in  the  world.  And  yet  I 
would  not  have  you  think  that  I  advocate  your  devotion  to  home 
cares  to  the  total  exclusion  of  other  matters.  Society  makes 
demands  upon  us  all,  which  we  must  recognize;  and,  in  order  to 
do  our  best  at  home,  it  is  necessary  for  us  to  do  something  for 
those  beyond  the  charmed  circle  of  our  fireside.  But  the  point 
I  wish  to  make  now  is  that  there  are  multitudes  of  women  who 
have  no  children,  and  upon  these  devolves  the  duty  very  largely 
of  conducting  the  benevolent  enterprises  in  which  you  take  so 
keen  an  interest.  Some  of  these  women  are  unmarried,  others 
have  lost  their  children  by  death,  others  have  reared  them  to 
manhood  and  womanhood,  and  still  others,  though  married,  have 
preferred  to  remain  childless.  Nor  would  I  appear  for  a  single 
moment  to  ignore  the  wonderful  work  which  American  and 
English  women  have  done  for  humanity  in  many  different  fields 
of  charitable,  philanthropic,  and  reformatory  endeavor.  I  am 
not  unmindful  of  Clara  Barton's  illustrious  career  in  camp  and 
battle-field,  and  in  the  organization  and  conduct  of  the  inter- 
national society  of  the  Red  Cross;  of  Anna  Dickeuson's  self- 
sacrih'cing  labors  for  the  freedom  of  the  slaves;  of  Elizabeth  Fry's 
noble  work  in  behalf  of  prisoners  early  in  this  century;  of  the 
kindly  ministries  in  jail  and  prison  of  Margaret  Prior  and 
Margaret  Fuller  Ossoli;  of  the  effective  endeavors  of  Dorothea 
Dix  in  behalf  of  the  insane;  of  Miss  Linda  Gilbert's  success  in 
procuring  employment  for  six  thousand  ex-convicts  in  the  period 
of  fifteen  years,  and  establishing  six  hundred  of  them  in  business; 
of  the  unselfish  deeds  of  Elizabeth  Comstock,  who  in  thirty 
years  visited  no  less  than  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
prisoners;  of  the  work  accomplished  in  behalf  of  the  Indian  by 
Hclen  Hunt  Jackson,  Miss  Alice  C.  Fletcher,  Mary  L.  Bonney, 
Mrs.  Marne  J.  Chase,  Mrs.  Mary  C.  Jones,  Mrs.  Margareta 
Sheppard,  Miss  Fanny  Lea,  and  Mrs.  Edward  Cope;  of  the  anti- 
slavery  agitation  and  systematic  efforts  for  the  amelioration  of 
the  condition  of  the  colored  people  carried  on  by  such  women  as 
Prudence  Crandall,  Sarah  and  Angelina  Grimke,  Lucretia  Mott, 
Abby  Kelley,  Sallie  Holley,  Caroline  F.  Putnam,  Lucy  Stone, 
Susan  B.  Anthony,  Mary  Grew,  Lydia  Maria  Child,  Harriet 
Beecher  Stowe,  Maria  Weston  Chapman,  Ann  Green  Phillips, 


THE    AMERICAN    FAMILY.  17 

and  Helen  E.  Garrison.  Nor  am  I  unaware  of  the  remarkable 
achievements  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  with 
Miss  Frances  "Willard  at  its  head,  not  only  in  behalf  of  temper- 
ance, but  in  the  interest  of  social  purity,  the  education  of  chil- 
dren regarding  the  evils  of  the  liquor  traffic,  the  enactment  of 
laws  prohibiting  the  sale  of  tobacco  to  minors,  and  increasing  the 
age  of  consent  in  girls.  In  all  these  ways,  and  in  the  establish- 
ment of  kindergartens,  hospitals,  orphanages,  industrial  educa- 
tion associations,  fresh  air  work,  homes  for  working  women, 
women's  unions,  training  schools  for  girls,  girls'  clubs  for  the 
education  and  reformation  of  working  girls,  neighborhood  guilds, 
training  schools  for  nurses,  homes  for  incurables,  etc.,  the  good 
women  of  America  have  accomplished  untold  good,  and  conferred 
incalculable  benefits  upon  humanity." 

' '  But  the  trouble  is,  Edward,  that  as  a  rule  the  women  who 
have  the  most  time  for  these  things,  have  the  least  inclination. ' ' 

' '  That,  of  course,  is  to  be  regretted,  but  they  and  not  you  are 
responsible.  The  fact  remains  that  they  have  the  requisite 
leisure,  and  if  they  choose  to  waste  it  in  selfish  follies  and  pleas- 
ures, you  are  not  to  blame." 

' '  Do  you  know,  Ned,  that  a  great  many  of  my  lady  acquaint- 
ances tell  me  I  am  a  fool  for  having  so  many  children;  that 
I  don't  know  what  it  is  to  have  a  good  time;  and  that  I  ought  to 
be  ashamed  of  myself  in  this  enlightened  age  to  have  a  lot  of 
young  ones  bothering  me  all  the  time?  " 

"I  am  not  at  all  surprised,"  replied  Mr.  Notion.  "But,  on 
the  same  principle  that  the  opium  smoker  and  morphine  victim 
try  to  induce  others  to  imitate  their  evil  example,  these  miserable 
women,  who  have  no  conception  of  what  honorable  matrimony 
is,  seek  to  justify  themselves  by  winning  others  over  to  their 
unnatural  mode  of  existence.  You,  and  women  like  you,  are  a 
constant  reproach  to  these  creatures. ' ' 

"And  yet,"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Notion,  "they  are  perpetually 
commenting  upon  my  youthful  appearance,  and  expressing  their 
astonishment  that  a  woman  who  has  had  so  many  children  as  I 
should  retain  so  much  of  her  maidenly  freshness. ' ' 

"Your  retention  in  middle  age,  Matilda,  of  so  much  of  your 
youthful  beauty  is  the  direct  result  of  your  observance  of  physio- 
logical laws.  In  obeying  the  divine  injunction  to  increase  and 
multiply,  you  have  put  yourself  in  harmony  with  great  natural 
principles  which  work  for  happiness,  as  well  as  righteousness. 


18  no.MKsTK1  i>ri-:i.s. 


Your  children,  like  those  of  the  lovely  matron  described  so 
beautifully  in  Proverbs,  rise  up  and  call  you  blessed.  They  arc 
a  comfort  to  you  now  in  middle  life,  and  in  old  age  they  will  be 
your  pride,  joy,  and  shield.  Happy  are  the  man  and  the  woman 
who  have  their  quiver  full  of  them." 

"But  in  saying  this,  Mr.  Notion,  you  are  going  directly 
counter  to  the  general  opinion  of  society.  I  feel  that  I  have  lost 
caste  by  presuming  to  have  so  many  children,  and  nearly  all  my 
acquaintances  express  themselves  as  being  horrified  at  the  multi- 
tude of  little  ones-  1  have  been  instrumental  in  bringing  into  the 
world.  That  this  is  no  mere  fancy  on  my  part  is  proved  by  the 
fact  that  the  few  ladies  in  my  circle  who  have  large  families, 
have  had  precisely  the  same  experience  as  myself.  The  women 
are  possibly  a  little  more  outspoken  than  the  men  in  their  dislike 
for  children,  but  the  feeling  is  nearly  universal.  When  I  take 
more  than  two  of  the  children  into  a  street-car,  I  am  immediately 
made  to  feel  this  prejudice,  and  when  I  have  them  accompany 
me  to  the  stores,  I  notice  at  once  the  difference  in  the  treatment 
accorded  me  then  and  on  those  occasions  when  I  go  shopping 
alone.  On  my  solitary  expeditious,  the  salesmen  are  deferential 
and  polite,  but  when  the  children  are  Avith  me,  these  gentlemen 
adopt  toward  me  a  manner  which  varies  from  brnsqueness  to 
incivility.  '  ' 

'  '  And  this  despite  the  fact  that  the  largest  families  buy  the 
most  goods  and  make  the  best  customers,"  suggested  Mr.  Notion. 

'  '  They  do,  Edward,  if  their  purchasing  power  corresponds  to 
their  necessities;  but  I  have  noticed  that  as  a  rule  the  large 
families  live  in  the  small  houses,  while  the  '  American  family  '  of 
two  resides  in  a  palatial  mansion." 

"Your  use  of  the  phrase  'American  family,'  Matilda,  would 
indicate  that  you  have  been  an  attentive  reader  of  the  newspapers, 
and  have  noticed  its  peculiar  use  in  the  advertising  columns." 

"  No,  I  can't  say  that  I  have." 

"Well,  this  morning,  just  out  of  curiosity,  I  glanced  over  the 
'small  ads,'  and  I  readily  discovered  that  the  dislike  to  children 
was  assuming  an  acute  form,  and  that  those  who  employed  the 
space  of  the  newspaper  for  busi  ness  purposes  were  frank  to  avow 
this  feeling  of  aversion.  In  order  to  show  you  what  I  mean,  I 
shall  read  vou  a  few  of  these  announcements,  which  I  copied 
verbatim: 

"  'Competent    woman    wishes   situation    at    housekeeping   in 


THK    AMi:UI<  AN     FAMILY.  19 

family;  no  objection,  to  children.'  'Choicest  part  of  Rincon 
Hill;  handsome  residence;  ample  grounds;  tine  view;  three 
furnished,  sunny  rooms,  etc.;  rent  reasonable  to  adults.'  'Large 
unfurnished  bav- window  room;  American  family;  adults.'  'Fur- 
nished housekeeping  rooms;  front;  no  children.'  'Furnished 
for  housekeeping  in  part  of  new  flat;  cozy  parlor  bedroom; 
kitchen;  bath;  suitable  only  for  man  and  wife.'  Large,  sunny 
housekeeping  room;  newly  renovated;  no  children.'  'Young 
woman  desires  a  place  in  a  small  family  to  do  general  housework 
and  plain  cooking.'  '  Wanted,  girl  to  do  general  housework  in 
small  f<niii/i/.'  '  Wanted,  young  giii  to  assist  in  housework; 
family  of  two;  references  required.'  'Wanted,  a  girl  for  a  small 
family.'  How  are  these,  my  dear,  as  straws  showing  the  direc- 
tion of  the  popular  current  ?  ' ' 

"I  am  surprised!"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Notion.  "The  thing  has 
gone  farther  than  I  had  any  idea  of.  Judging  from  what  you 
have  read,  the  American  family  has  been  narrowed  down  to  two. 
But,  surely,  such  a  phrase  as  a  'family  of  two'  can  have  no 
sanction,  either  in  law  or  good  usage." 

"Oh,  yes,  it  has!"  asserted  Mr.  Notion.  "It  is  becoming 
more  common,  and  has  already  secured  some  judicial  recognition. 
In  the  Century  Dictionary  I  find  the  following:  'In  law,  husband 
and  wife,  living  together  and  having  no  children,  are  sometimes 
deemed  within  the  benefit  of  a  statute  as  to  families. '  Of  course, 
as  yet  the  accepted  definitions  of  the  word  '  family '  hardly  leave 
room  for  such  a  signification.  The  Standard  Dictionary  defines 
it  as  'a  group  of  persons,  consisting  of  a  father,  mother,  and  their 
children ;  the  collection  of  persons  forming  a  domestic  household, 
including  parents,  children,  servants,  and  sometimes  lodgers;  a 
domestic  establishment;  in  a  restricted  sense,  the  children  as 
distinguished  from  the  parents.'  Webster's  International  Dic- 
tionary gives  the  following  definition:  'A  collective  body  of 
persons,  who  live  in  one  house  and  under  one  head,  or  manager; 
a  household,  including  parents,  children  and  servants,  and,  as  the 
ra-e  may  be,  lodgers  or  boarders;  the  group  comprising  a  hus- 
haud,  wife,  and  their  dependent  children,  constituting  a  funda- 
mental unit  in  the  organization  of  society.'  The  Century 
Dictionary  says  the  family  is  'the  collective  body  of  persons 
who  form  one  household,  under  one  head  and  one  domestic 
government,  including  parents,  children,  and  servants,  etc.'  By 
the  way,  Matilda,  I  observe  that  the  Century  and  the  Inter- 


20  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

national   Dictionaries  agree  in  speaking  of  'one  head'  of  the 
family.     I  suppose  you  will  admit  that  that  head  is  the  husband. ' ' 

' '  Yes,  I  concede  that  freely, ' '  replied  Mrs.  Notion,  ' '  but 
such  a  concession  is  of 'no  significance,  for  the  reason  that  the 
dictionaries  are  man-made,  and  the  laws  and  customs  which  they 
record  are  also  the  product  of  the  male  portion  of  society. ' ' 

"True,  Matilda,  true;  and  I  shall  take  pleasure  in  discussing 
that  phase  of  the  woman  question  with  you  at  some  future  time. 
But  we  were  talking  about  the  'American  family. '  A  few  momen  ts 
since  you  referred  to  the  astonishment  expressed  by  a  certain 
class  of  women  at  your  youthful  looks.  What  did  they  have  to 
say  about  their  own  health?  and  what  was  their  appearance?  " 

"Most  of  them  complain  incessantly  of  their  maladies  and 
ailments,  and  don't  see  how  it  is  possible  for  me  to  do  so  much 
work,  and  yet  enjoy  such  robust  health.  So  far  as  their  appear- 
ance is  concerned,  they  are  prematurely  old. ' ' 

"Yes,"  interjected  Mr.  Notion,  "I  can  testify  to  that. 
Women  who  were  girls  and  schoolmates  of  mine  twenty  years 
ago,  are  now  decrepit.  Their  figures  have  lost  their  former 
symmetry;  their  faces  have  no  longer  the  graceful  contour  of 
yore;  their  featwes  are  pinched;  their  complexions  are  pale  and 
yellow.  They  are  in  the  '  sere  and  yellow  leaf. '  Their  youthful 
buoyancy  and  high  spirits  are  gone,  and  they  look  forward 
either  to  a  premature  death  or  to  an  old  age  of  pain  and  anguish, 
unmitigated  by  the  affection  and  sympathy  of  children,  unbright- 
ened  by  the  sweetness  and*  gaiety  of  grandchildren,  but,  on  t!.< 
contrary,  embittered  by  the  consciousness  that  they  are  a  burden 
to  those  around  them." 

"How  ready  you  are,  Edward,  to  criticise  women,  and  to 
assume  that  they  alone  are  to  blame  for  any  deviations  from  the 
strict  path  of  domestic  rectitude ! ' ' 

"  And  I  am  sorry  to  say,"  continued  Mr.  Notion,  apparently 
unheeding  his  wife's  remark,  "that  most  of  the  childless  wives 
of  our  acquaintance,  as  well  as  those  who  have  submitted  but 
once  to  the  experience  of  maternity,  are  a  burden  to  their 
husbands. ' ' 

"I  have  no  doubt,"  said  Mrs.  Notion,  "that  their  husbands 
are  chiefly  in  fault  in  the  matter,  and  richly  deserve  all  the 
punishment  which  comes  to  them." 

"Possibly  so,  Matilda,  but  the  fact  remains  that  these  women 
spend  much  of  the  family  income  upon  dressmakers  and  phy- 


THE   AMERICAN    FAMILY.  21 

sicians,  and  when  their  husbands  come  home  in  the  evening, 
wearied  with  the  day's  work  and  worried  with  the  day's  cares, 
their  alleged  '  helpmeets, '  instead  of  comforting  and  cheering 
them,  pour  long  tales  of  woe  into  their  harrowed  ears,  and  make 
large  demands  upon  them  for  condolence  and  sympathy.  And  so 
the  man  who  reaches  his  home  brimful  of  trouble — ' ' 

' '  Brimful  of  liquor,  would  be  oftener  correct, ' '  interrupted 
Mrs.  Notion. 

' '  And  who  longs  to  tell  it  all  to  one  who  can  give  mm  sympa- 
thy and  advice,"  continued  Mr.  Notion,  "has  to  sit  throughout 
the  dismal  dinner  and  listen  to  his  wife's  misfortunes — her  pains 
and  aches  and  peculiar  sensations,  the  hatefulness  of  the  servant, 
etc.,  etc." 

"What  a  deep  and  tender  compassion  and  pity  you  have, 
Edward,  for  the  injustice  and  persecution  to  which  your  poor, 
meek,  little^  fellow-men  are  subjected  by  their  cruel  and  unreason- 
able, though  admittedly  sickly,  wives!  Hereafter,  I  wish  you 
would  pour  forth  a  little  of  your  superabundant  sympathy  upon 
me,  undeserving  and  reprobate  though  I  be." 

"What  a  little  satirist  you  are!"  exclaimed  Mr.  Notion. 
' '  But,  to  resume  the  thread  of  my  remarks,  I  do  not  wonder  that 
thousands  of  these  unfortunate  fellows,  denied  the  delights  of 
home,  listening  in  vain  through  the  dreary  years  for  the  voice  of 
wifely  sympathy,  or  the  pretty  prattle  of  childhood,  become 
desperate,  and  flee  from  their  forbidding  firesides  to  the  warmth, 
brightness,  fellowship,  and  good  cheer  of  club,  lodge,  saloon,  and 
still  viler  places  of  resort. " 

"You  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  yourself,  Edward.  You  have 
been  dinning  so  constantly  into  my  ears  the  declaration  that  men 
are  strong  and  wise  and  brave,  and  in  every  way  incomparably 
the  superiors  of  women,  that  I  am  sometimes  tempted  to  believe 
you ;  and  yet  you  now  assume  for  the  purpose  of  your  argument 
that  men  are  weak  and  easily  influenced  by  their  wives.  If  they 
were  as  great,  powerful,  and  noble  as  you  sometimes  paint  them, 
they  would  mould  the  character  of  their  wives  in  accordance  with 
their  own  wishes,  almost  as  easily  as  the  skilful  sculptor  shapes 
the  plastic  clay.  In  fact,  I  am  very  firmly  of  the  opinion  that  in 
nine  cases  out  of  ten  the  men  whose  wives  are  not  what  they 
si  mi  ild  be,  are  themselves  chiefly  to  blame  for  it;  and,  so  far  as 
children  are  concerned,  I  believe  that  the  women  who  are  averse 
to  maternity,  have  generally  been  drilled  into  that  frame  of  mind 
by  their  unnatural  husbands." 


22  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

"Well,  well,  Matilda,  we  won't  argue  that  point.  But  you 
must  agree  with  me  that  within  the  past  generation  a  great 
revolution  has  been  silently  accomplished  in  the  domestic  life  of 
the  American  people.  Among  the  numerous  successful  business 
and  professional  men  of  my  acquaintance,  those  who  come  from 
small  families  are  rare  exceptions.  But  these  men  are,  as  a  rule, 
the  fathers  of  only  one  or  two  children.  That  their  cases  are 
representative,  is  proved  by  the  last  three  censuses,  which  show  a 
marked  falling  oft' in  the  birth  rate,  and  this,  despite  the  fact  that 
the  percentage  of  births  in  the  southern  states  still  continues 
large. ' ' 

"  To  what  do  you  attribute  this  decrea-e  ?  " 

"The  causes  are  numerous,  and  while  I  do  not  pretend  to  have 
discovered  them  all,  I  think  I  can  point  out  a  few  of  the  most 
salient.  As  a  people,  we  have  traveled  a  great  deal,  and 
children  are  an  inconvenience  to  travelers.  Vast  currents  of 
population  have  been  in  constant  motion  from  Europe  to  America, 
and  from  the  eastern  states  to  the  great  west.  Home  life  has 
been  interfered  with  in  millions  of  cases,  and  in  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  instances  entirely  destroyed.  In  our  American 
migrations  the  men  have  gone  as  pioneers,  thus  terribly  disturb- 
ing the  numerical  proportions  of  the  sexes.  In  the  east  the 
women  have  greatly  exceeded  the  men  in  number,  while  in  the 
west  women  have  been  in  a  very  small  minority.  Then,  there  has 
been  the  rush  to  the  towns  and  cities,  and  the  influences  in  great 
centers  of  population  nearly  all  militate  against  true  home  life. 
Multitudes  live  in  hotels,  boarding-houses,  lodging-houses,  and 
restaurants.  With  persons  so  situated  children  are  a  positive 
inconvenience.  Besides,  we  have  become  more  and  more  of  a 
pleasure-loving  people.  Much  of  our  time  is  spent  in  theaters, 
concerts,  balls,  parties,  and  private  social  gatherings,  while  the 
habit  formed  by  the  men  of  going  to  lodge,  needs  no  comment. 
Young  children  interfere  greatly  with  this  round  of  pleasures, 
especially  with  married  persons  who  can  not  afford  to  employ  a 
servant,  and  rather  than  stay  home  night  after  night  to  take  care 
of  the  children,  they  refrain  from  having  any.  With  the  rich 
many  causes  work  in  the  same  direction.  The  difficulty  of  getting 
faithful,  reliable  servants  is  one;  but  the  disinclination  of  stylish 
women  to  permit  anything  to  mar  even  temporarily  the  symme- 
try of  their  forms, or  to  interfere  in  any  degree  with  their  social 
functions,  is  still  more  potent  in  preventing  their  assumption  of 


THE   AMERICAN    FAMILY.  23 

maternity.  The  expense  of  living,  the  uncertainty  of  business, 
the  force  of  example,  and  the  fear  of  ridicule  are  all  more  or  less 
influential  in  diminishing  the  hirth  rate." 

"Quite  a  formidable  array  of  causes  this!"  exclaimed  Mrs. 
Notion.  "Can't  you  think  of  one  or  two  more  ?  " 

' '  Indeed  I  can,  Matilda.  I  have  by  no  means  exhausted  my 
list.  As  the  native-born  Americans  look  around  them  and  see 
the  intensity  of  the  struggle  for  existence,  as  they  watch  the 
hordes  of  foreigners  who  do  nearly  all  the  laboring  work  of  the 
country,  they  shrink  from  bringing  any  children  of  theirs  into 
the  world  to  compete  with  these  coarse,  vulgar,  illiterate,  and 
semi-civilized  multitudes.  They  doubt  their  ability  to  exempt 
their  children  from  what  they  consider  degrading  labor,  and, 
haunted  by  the  fear  of  their  own  girls  working  in  filthy  factories, 
and  their  own  boys  shoveling  sand,  they  determine  to  have  none. 
Another  cau.se  is  monopoly." 

"  Why,  Ned,  what  can  monopoly  have  to  do  with  it?  " 

' '  A  great  deal.  It  used  to  be  that  the  American  people  could 
utilize  most  of  their  substance  in  the  rearing  of  families;  now  a 
large  proportion  of  their  earnings  is  diverted  into  the  coffers  of 
grinding  monopolies.  As  a  matter  of  fact  their  involuntary 
contributions  to  the  barons  of  boodle,  the  count  of  coin,  and  the 
marquises  of  monopoly  have  seriously  impaired  their  abilitv  to 
support  children." 

"Well,  I  never  thought  of  that  before.  But  surely,  Ned, 
you  have  now  finished  your  enumeration." 

' '  Not  quite,  my  dear.  The  prevailing  disobedience  to  parents 
on  the  part  of  the  young,  and  the  general  lack  of  respect  for 
parental  authority,  are  certainly  calculated  to  dissuade  men  and 
women  from  assuming  parental  responsibilities.  The  increase  of 
crime  among  the  young  is  also  very  discouraging." 

"Yes,  indeed.  O  Edward,  I  do  hope  our  children  will 
never  speak  of  us  as  the  '  old  man  '  and  the  '  old  woman, '  or  call 
you  the  '  governor '  !  I  hear  of  so  many  cases  of  insolence,  con- 
trmpt,  and  cruelty  practised  by  children  to  their  parents,  that  I 
often  tremble  at  the  future." 

"So  do  I,  Matilda.  But  1  want  to  mention  two  other 
potential  reasons  for  our  decreasing  birth  rate.  One  is  the 
prevailing  mania  for  divorces,  and  the  other  is  the  disinclina- 
tion to  marry  on  the  part  of  both  young  men  and  young  women. 
These  divorces  break  up  families,  and  make  it  bad  for  the  chil- 


24  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

dreu  of  the  separated  parents.  Now,  isn't  it  reasonable  to 
suppose  that  the  consciousness  of  this  fact,  combined  with  a 
general  feeling  of  uncertainty  as  to  the  duration  of  the  marriage 
relation,  has  something  to  do  with  the  aversion  to  children  ? ' ' 

"Yes,  there  is  a  good  deal  offeree  in  your  argument." 

1 '  And  then,  Matilda,  these  hundreds  of  thousands  of  divorces 
have  much  to  do  with  the  dislike  to  marry.  Naturally,  the 
unmarried  shrink  from  taking  a  step  which  in  such  a  multitude 
of  cases  has  been  fraught  with  disaster.  But,  as  I  said  in  our 
little  talk  the  other  day,  one  of  the  principal  reasons  Avhy  young 
men  hesitate  to  marry,  is  because,  on  account  of  female  competi- 
tion, they  doubt  their  ability  to  support  a  wife." 

' '  But  is  it  not  a  fact,  Mr.  Notion,  that  many  of  these  causes 
which  you  mention  have  been  in  operation  right  along,  and  that 
they  antedated  the  sudden  decline  in  the  proportion  of  births?  " 

"To  a  certain  extent  they  have,  but  in  a  much  less  degree 
than  now.  There  are  certain  facts,  however,  which  tend  to 
make  them  more  effective  in  lessening  the  population  than  they 
ever  were  before.  The  causes  which  I  have  given  all  point  in 
the  direction  of  disinclination  to  have  children.  I  have  not  yet 
shown  you  why  it  is  that  this  disinclination  is  more  active  and 
operative  in  these  days  than  was  the  comparatively  slight  disin- 
clination which  existed  in  former  times." 

At  this  point  Mrs.  Notion  went  to  sleep  in  her  chair,  and  her 
husband  immediately  began  his  preparations  for  retiring. 


Mr.  Notion  Extends  His  Remarks  on  the 
"American  Family/* 

"Oh,  trebly  blest  the  placid  lot  of  those 

Whose  hearth  foundations  are  in  pure  love  laid, 
Where  husband's  breast  with  tempered  ardor  glows, 
And  wife,  oft  mother,  is  in  heart  a  maid!  " 

— Euripides. 

' '  You  must  excuse  me,  Edward,  for  falling  asleep  last  even- 
ing while  you  were  so  kindly  explaining  to  me  the  causes  which 
retard  the  increase  of  our  American  families.  When  I  dozed 
off,  you  were  just  hinting  at  the  greater  facilities  which  exist  in 
these  modern  times  for  limiting  the  dimensions  of  the  family.  I 
am  curious  to  hear  what  you  have  to  say  on  that  phase  of  the 
subject,  and  now  that  the  children  are  all  snug  in  their  beds,  we 
can  have  a  nice,  confidential  talk. ' ' 

' '  To  continue  our  interrupted  conversation  of  last  night, ' '  said 
Mr.  Notion,  ' '  there  are  three  great  positive  agencies  which  go  to 
give  practical  effect  to  this  parental  disinclination,  if  I  may  call 
it  so,  of  which  we  were  speaking,  and  one  equally  powerful 
agency  of  a  negative  character.  The  positive  ones  are  the  news- 
paper, the  medical  profession,  and  the  drug  stores.  The  nega- 
tive one  is  the  pulpit." 

"  What  in  the  world,  Edward,  have  the  newspapers  to  do  with 
this  question  ?  ' ' 

' '  You  sweet  little  innocent,  how  little  you  know  of  the  evils 
that  are  all  around  you!  In  you  is  verified  the  truth  of  the 
saying  that  to  the  pure  all  things  are  pure.  You  read  the  news- 
paper every  day,  and  yet  have  never  noticed  some  of  its  most 
serious  and  immoral  features.  Perhaps  that  is  one  reason  why 
you  have  so  many  children.  If  you  had  made  the  use  of  your 
newspaper  that  some  women  do,  our  darling  children  would 
never  have  seen  the  light  of  day. 

"  Listen  to  this,  Matilda,  culled  from  the  advertising  columns 
of  to-day's  paper.  [Here  Mr.  Notion  read  several  of  the  infamous 

(25) 


26  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

advertisements  so  common  in  the  daily  press.]  Of  coarse, 
Matilda,  you  see  the  devilish  meaning  of  these  announcements, 
for  the  language  is  very  thinly  veiled,  and  in  some  cases  there  is 
no  pretense  of  concealment." 

"Yes,  I  fully  comprehend  the  Satanic  purpose  which  under- 
lies all  these  advertisements,  and  I  am  shocked  to  think  that 
women  should  be  among  those  who  engage  in  such  a  diabolical 
business.  But  is  there  no  law  against  such  things  ?  " 

"Oh,  the  law  is  all  right,  my  dear;  but  the  trouble  is  that  no 
attempt  is  made  to  enforce  it!  Let  me  call  your  attention  to 
section  317  of  the  Penal  Code  of  this  state,  which  is  evidently 
designed  for  just  such  cases  as  these,  and  which  is  fairly  illustra- 
tive of  similar  legislation  in  most  of  the  other  states.  It  is  as 
follows:  'Every  person  who  wilfully  writes,  composes,  or  pub- 
lishes any  notice  or  advertisement  of  any  medicine  or  means  for 
producing  or  facilitating  a  miscarriage  or  abortion,  or  for  the 
prevention  of  conception,  or  who  offers  his  services  by  any  notice, 
advertisement,  or  otherwise,  to  assist  in  the  accomplishment  of 
any  such  purpose,  is  guilty  of  a  felony.'  ' 

"Why,  Ned,  I  never  dreamed  there  was  such  a  law  in  exist  - 
.ence.  Surely  it  has  been  recently  enacted,  and  the  authorities 
are  not  aware  of  it. ' ' 

"You  are  mistaken  about  that.  It  went  into  full  effect  on 
July  1,  1874,  and  the  boys,  if  there  are  any,  whose  lives  were 
saved  by  its  instrumentality,  are  old  enough  to  vote  to-day." 

"  Can  you  tell  me,  my  dear,  why  they  don't  enforce  this  law?  " 
asked  Mrs.  Notion  with  manifest  surprise. 

"Simply  because  the  violators  of  the  law  have  too  much 
influence  back  of  them  to  be  reached  by  the  moral  sense  of  the 
community,  which,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  is  very  low.  Many 
thousands  of  people  in  this  city  avail  themselves  of  the  services 
of  these  specialists,  or  of  regular  physicians  who  are  equally 
guilty,  and  all  these  are  interested  in  preventing  the  prosecution 
of  the  violators  of  this  provision  of  the  law.  Then,  there  are 
still  larger  numbers  of  our  citizens  who-  habitually  disobey  other 
similar  sections  of  the  Code,  and  naturally  their  moral  feelings 
are  so  blunted  that  they  do  not  realize  the  turpitude  of  these 
crimes. ' ' 

"While  you  were  reading  that  section,  I  thought  it  included 
publishers  in  its  provisions.  Was  I  right  in  that  impression?" 

"  I  think  you   were.      It  says:   'Every  person  who  publishes 


THE   AMERICAN    FAMILY.  27 

any  notice  or  advertisement; '  and,  although  the  language  is  not 
as  specific  as  I  should  wish,  still  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  any 
fair  construction  of  the  terms  of  the  section  Avould  include  the 
proprietors  of  newspapers  in  its  prohibition. ' ' 

"And  so,  Edward,  these  great  daily  journals  which  enter 
scores  of  thousands  of  the  people's  homes  with  their  load  of  filth, 
are  constant  and  unpunished  defiers  of  the  law  of  the  land  ?  ' ' 

"I  am  sorry  to  say  that  they  are,"  answered  Mr.  Notion. 
"  But  they  are  conducted  by  men  who  seem  to  be  entirely  devoid 
of  moral  scruples,  and  who  in  their  greed  for  gold  gladly  violate 
every  legal  and  moral  obligation  which  can  be  trampled  upon 
with  impunity.  These  newspapers  have  tremendous  influence, 
and  in  combination  with  the  physicians  who  thrive  by  infanticide, 
the  avowed  specialists  in  that  line,  the  drug  stores  who  carry  on 
a  profitable  traffic  in  the  drugs  and  appliances  which  prevent 
conception  or  induce  miscarriage,  and  the  multitudes  of  people 
who  themselves  disobey  these  legal  injunctions,  constitute  a 
phalanx  which  has  thus  far  presented  an  invincible  front  to  the 
fe\v  and  feeble  advocates  of  an  enforcement  of  the  law." 

"You  referred  a  moment  ago  to  other  similar  provisions. 
What  are  they?" 

"Section  274  of  the  Penal  Code  declares:  'Every  person  who 
provides,  supplies,  or  administers  to  any  pregnant  woman,  or 
procures  any  such  woman  to  take  any  medicine,  drug,  or  sub- 
stance, or  uses  or  employs  any  instrument  or  other  means  what- 
ever, with  intent  thereby  to  procure  the  miscarriage  of  such 
woman,  unless  the  same  is  necessary  to  preserve  her  life,  is 
punishable  by  imprisonment  in  the  state  prison  not  less  than  two 
nor  more  than  five  years.'  Section  275  provides:  'Every  woman 
who  solicits  of  any  person  any  medicine,  drug,  or  substance 
whatever,  and  takes  the  same,  or  who  submits  to  any  operation, 
or  to  the  use  of  any  means  whatever,  with  intent  thereby  to  pro- 
cure a  miscarriage,  unless  the  same  is  necessary  to  preserve  her 
life,  is  punishable  by  imprisonment  in  the  state  prison  not  less 
than  one  nor  more  than  five  years.'  You  will  see  from  these 
sections  that  there  is  considerable  law  on  the  subject,  and  that 
the  number  of  criminals  within  the  scope  of  its  inhibitions 
constitutes  a  large  proportion  of  our  population.  No  effort  is 
made. to  enforce  these  laws,  except  where  the  death  of  the  woman 
results  from  their  violation,  and  in  those  ca-i-s  it  is  generally 
impossible  to  convict  the  murderer." 


28  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

"These  statements  of  yours,  Edward,  are  appalling.  It  is 
hard  to  believe  that  our  community  is  so  degraded  as  they  would 
indicate,  and  I  find  it  almost  impossible  to  give  credence  to  the 
charge  that  reputable  physicians  would  connive  at  the  crime  of 
infanticide,  and  assist  in  its  perpetration." 

"Do  not  understand  me,  Matilda,  to  make  a  sweeping  con- 
demnation of  all  our  medical  men.  Many  of  them  are  high- 
minded,  honorable  gentlemen,  who  would  spurn  any  proposal  to 
take  part  in  such  iniquity.  But  I  learn  from  numerous  and 
reliable  sources  that  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  doctors  in 
this  and  other  communities,  do  not  hesitate,  when  so  requested 
by  an  influential  patient,  to  perform  these  criminal  operations. 
More  than  this,  the  practise  lias  become  very  common  among 
medical  men  of  advising  their  lady  patients  not  to  become  moth- 
ers, as  their  strength  is  not  sufficient  for  the  ordeal.  They  warn 
them  to  be  very  careful  in  this  regard,  and  impress  upon  them 
the  seriousness  and  difficulty  of  the  function  of  maternity.  The 
results  of  this  species  of  counsel  are  obvious.  When  fashion, 
folly,  public  opinion,  selfishness,  and  the  fear  of  ridicule  all 
co-operate  as  deterrents  from  maternity,  it  is  only  necessary  to 
add  physical  timidity,  and  they  become  thoroughly  effective." 

"I  remember  well,  Ned,  when  our  first  baby  was  born,  the 
doctor  warned  me  not  to  have  any  more,  as  I  was  too  delicate 
either  to  bear  or  rear  children.  I  did  look  delicate  then,  but  I 
am  more  robust  in  appearance  now." 

"You  are  indeed,  Matilda,  and  a  fine,  vigorous  wife  and 
seven  strong  children  are  a  much  better  investment  than  a 
peevish,  querulous  wife,  with  a  long  list  of  chronic  complaints, 
especially  when  her  maladies  are  the  consequence  of  wilful  and 
wanton  disregard  of  both  divine  and  human  laws.  But  before 
I  leave  this  point,  I  want  to  say  that  among  the  bravest  and 
most  outspoken  advocates  of  reform  along  these  lines,  are  some 
of  the  medical  men  of  the  country.  To  them,  indeed,  I  owe 
much  of  the  knowledge  I  possess  of  the  widespread  extent  and 
terrible  prevalence  of  infanticide  and  kindred  evils.  For 
instance,  Dr.  Cook,  of  Cedar  Rapids,  says:  'It  lias  been  ascer- 
tained that  in  many' of  the  countries  of  Europe  the  fecundity  of 
the  population,  or  the  ratio  of  its  annual  increase,  is  rapidly 
diminishing;  in  Sweden  it  has  lessened  one-tilth  ;  in  Denmark 
and  England,  one-third;  in  Prussia,  one-fourth,  and  in  Russia, 
Spain,  Germany,  and  France  it  has  lessened  by  one-half  during 


TIIK    AMKKK'AN    FAMILY.  29 

the  iast  single  century.  In  France,  the  deaths,  independent  of 
those  killed  in  battle  or  dying  in  the  army,  exceed  the  actual 
births  by  a  very  startling  percentage.'  Professor  Hale,  of 
Chicago,  says:  'Two-thirds  of  all  the  conceptions  occurring  in 
the  United  States  and  many  other  civilized  countries  are  destroyed 
criminally.'  ' 

"Surely,"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Notion,  "that  must  be  a  gross 
exaggeration  ! ' ' 

"I  think  myself,"  replied  Mr.  Notion,  "that  the  professor 
goes  to  extremes,  and,  besides,  it  is  impossible  to  ascertain  the 
facts  of  the  case.  But  we  do  know  that  the  extent  of  this  crime 
is  appalling.  Dr.  J.  Bell,  president  of  the  Kansas  State  Med- 
ical Society,  in  1889,  read  an  article  before  that  society  upon 
the  subject  of  Infanticide,  in  which  he  said:  'It  would  be  difficult 
to  find  a  hamlet  in  the  laud,  or  a  street  or  alley  in  a  city,  where 
unborn  children  have  not  been  destroyed  by  those  who  were 
bound  by  every  law  of  God  and  man  to  cherish  and  protect 
them.  .  .  .  There  have  been  thousands  upon  thousands 
more  children  murdered  in  the  prenatal  state  by  our  so-called 
"high-toned,  cultured,  professedly  civilized  American  women" 
than  have  ever  perished  by  being  thrown  to  the  crocodiles  in  the 
Ganges.  This  horrible  picture  grows  still  darker  when  we 
remember  the  vile  means  often  used  to  prevent  conception.  I 
have  known  mothers  to  teach  their  daughters  after  marriage  how 
to  prevent  conception,  and  the  result  is  no  children  for  many 
years,  and  perhaps  never.  When  our  young  folks  get  married 
they  soon  learn  to  look  upon  parenthood  as  a  responsibility  and 
a  burden  which  they  may  properly  avoid  if  possible,  and  they 
virtually  commit  themselves  to  a  childless  marriage.  They  may 
not  for  some  time  think  it  proper  to  interfere  with  nature  when 
she  has  begun  to  create  a  human  life,  but  they  are  prepared  to 
prevent  her  beginning,  so  that  it  may  well  be  said  that  the  pre- 
vention and  destruction  of  unborn  human  life  is,  in  this  country 
at  least,  "the  terror  that  walketh  in  darkness,  and  the  destruction 
that  wasteth  at  noonday." 

' '  The  good  doctor  talks  with  great  plainness, ' '  remarked  Mrs. 
Notion. 

"Yes,  Matilda,  and  I  am  glad  he  does,  for  the  existing  con- 
dition of  affairs  demands  strong,  stern,  true  words.  In  another 
part  of  his  address  Dr.  Bell  says:  'Permit  me  to  call  your 
attention  to  a  few  more  statistics  that  are  not  only  curious,  but 


30  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

should  alarm  any  right-minded  man  or  woman  iu  America,  it 
the  perpetuity  of  our  republican  institutions,  the  Protestant 
religion,  and  the  American  race  are  any  object.  The  census 
taken  in  1865  in  the  State  of  New  York  gives  a  total  of  780,931 
families;  of  this  number  196,802  were  without  children,  while 
there  were  148,208  families  with  only  one  child  each,  140, 072 
with  two  children  each,  and  107,342  with  three  each.  This 
shows  that  in  almost  one-fourth  of  all  the  families  in  the  state 
not  a  single  child  is  found,  and  in  591,934  families — more  than 
three-fourths — there  was  an  average  of  only  a  small  fraction 
over  one  child  to  each  family.  ...  A  very  large  majority 
of  these  with  no  children,  or  the  mothers  of  but  a  few,  were 
American  women.'' 

"Much  as  I  advocate  woman's  rights,  Edward,  I  do  not  think 
it  fair  for  so  large  a  proportion  of  married  women  to  decline  the 
cares  and  responsibilities  of  maternity,  and  thus  throw  upon 
their  more  conscientious  sisters  an  undue  burden  of  child-bearing. ' ' 

' '  Neither  do  I, ' '  replied  Mr.  Notion.  ' '  It  has  been  estimated 
that  in  order  to  maintain  the  population  of  Great  Britain  at  a 
standstill,  an  average  of  a  slight  fraction  more  than  six  children 
must  be  born  to  every  married  couple  in  the  country.  The  same 
thing  may  be  said  of  our  own  land.  In  a  book  called  'The 
Crowning  Sin  of  the  Age,'  I  find  the  following  significant  state- 
ments: 'Two  facts  appear  to  be  established  beyond  controversy: 
First,  that  the  birth  rate  of  the  foreign  population  is  more  than 
twice  as  large  as  the  strictly  American.  Second,  that  in  the 
country  districts  of  New  England,  settled  mainly  by  Americans, 
the  death  rate  keeps  pace  with,  and  in  many  cases  exceeds,  the 
birth  rate,  so  that  there  is  no  addition  to  the  population  by  natural 
increase.  This  will  do  much  to  throw  light  on  the  question  of  the 
deserted  farms  of  New  England.  The  Board  of  Health  of  New 
Hampshire,  after  carefully  analyzing  the  births  and  deaths  in  1880, 
to  draw  the  line  between  the  foreign  and  the  American,  estab- 
lished the  fact  that  the  deaths  among  the  Americans  exceed  the 
births  by  800.  That  is,  New  Hampshire  lost  just  800  of  her 
native  population  in  1880  by  a  deficit  of  births.  ...  A 
careful  examination  of  the  facts  in  the  Massachusetts  State  census 
of  1885,  exhibits  the  same  relative  comparison,  when  we  inquire 
who  the  mothers  of  the  children  are.  This  reveals  the  same 
disparity  which  we  saw  in  the  birth  rate  and  in  the  conjugal 
condition  of  the  state's  population.  ...  .  According  to  the 


THE   AMERICAN    FAMILY.  31 

most  authentic  reports,  the  birth  rate  of  the  New  England  states 
is  less  than  that  of  any  large  European  nation,  except  Frainv. 
And  the  New  England  birth  rate,  as  collected  in  the  vital 
statistics,  being  based  upon  both  the  foreign  and  American 
classes,  it  will  be  seen  that  when  the  former  is  eliminated  in  the 
computation,  the  birth  rate  of  the  native  Americans  in  New 
England  is  much  lower  than  that  of  infidel  France.' ' 

"But  don't  forget  in  this  connection,"  suggested  Mrs.  Notion, 
"that  the  men  are  just  as  culpable  as  the  women,  and  that  neither 
sex  has  any  right  to  throw  all  the  blame  upon  the  other  for  the 
existing  condition  of  affaire." 

"I  can  not  reply  to  you,  Matilda,  in  any  more  effective  man- 
ner than  by  quoting  briefly  from  a  pamphlet  written  by  Dr. 
George  L.  Fitch,  of  this  city,  called  'Humanity's  Wrongs  alia* 
Woman's  Rights,'  in  which  that  gentleman  very  pertinently 
remarks:  'It  is  not  enough  to  say  that  man  is  equally  guilty  with 
woman  in  this  matter.  The  fact  is,  the  life  of  the  unborn  infant 
is  in  her  sole  charge,  and  the  further  fact  that  she  has  not  the 
courage  and  steadfastness  to  protect  that  charge,  shows  that  she 
has  not  the  discretion  and  ability  for  self-government  which  are 
absolutely  prerequisites  to  the  rightful  discharge  of  the  duties  of 
citizenship. '  ' 

"The  latter  part  of  Dr.  Fitch's  assertion,  Edward,  squints  in 
the  direction  of  female  suffrage,  and  we  have  not  reached  that 
subject." 

"Nor  have  I  any  desire  to  discuss  it  at  this  time,"  said  Mr. 
Notion,  "but  I  quoted  Dr.  Fitch's  statement  as  being  especially 
relevant  to  the  question  of  the  respective  culpability  of  the  sexes 
regarding  infanticide  and  other  related  offenses.  I  desire  to  read 
you  one  more  extract  from  'The  Crowning  Sin  of  the  Age,'  and 
then  I  shall  relieve  your  patience,  so  far  as  this  particular  phase 
of  our  theme  is  concerned:  'By  the  Massachusetts  census  of 
1885,  it  is  shown  that  the  total  number  of  families  in  the  State 
of  Massachusetts  are  424,415,  and  that  the  average  size  for  all 
the  normal  families  of  the  state,  excluding  boarding-houses, 
hotels,  schools,  inmates  of  charitable  homes,  was  4.45.  This 
indicates  2.45  children  to  a  family.  It  seems  to  be  the  fact  that 
our  fair  America,  notwithstanding  her  favored  position,  with 
such  ample  resources  to  feed  and  clothe  her  children,  with  such 
magnificent  institutions  of  learning  and  culture  to  educate  and 
refine  them,  with  such  an  honored  and  glorious  inheritance  of 


32  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

religious  faith  and  life  to  save  their  souls,  has  entered  the  lists 
with  India  and  China  in  the  Satanic  and  heathen  practise  of 
childlessness  and  infanticide  and  foeticide.'  Is  it  any  wonder, 
Matilda,  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  young  men  of  the  coun- 
try should  refrain  from  matrimony,  and  lead  licentious  lives? 
That  such  is  the  case  I  can  prove  by  referring  to  Extra  Census 
Bulletin  No.  69,  issued  by  the  United  States  Census  Bureau, 
April  25,  1894,  which  shows  that  of  men  between  20  and  24 
years  of  age,  80. 69  per  cent  were  single ;  from  25  to  29  years 
of  age,  45.98  were  single;  from  30  to  34,  26.50  per  cent,  and 
from  35  to  44,  15.34  per  cent." 

"If  you  are  right  in  your  deductions  as  to  the  seriousness  of 
this  evil, ' '  thoughtfully  remarked  Mrs.  Notion,  ' '  all  other  ques- 
tions pale  into  utter  insignificance,  and  should  hardly  be  men- 
tioned until  it  is  rightly  decided." 

"True,  Matilda,  and  yet  the  wise  and  righteous  women  who 
assembled  at  the  Women's  Congress  at  Chicago  in  1893,  saw  fit 
to  devote  only  one  brief  paragraph  to  this  subject  in  all  their 
essays,  addresses,  and  discussions." 

"You  were  going  to  say  something,  Edward,  about  the  drug 
stores  as  one  of  the  positive  agencies,  and  the  pulpit  as  a  negative 
one,  in  giving  effect  to  the  general  disinclination  to  procreate  the 
human  species." 

' '  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  the  drug  stores,  as  generally  conducted, 
are  doing  a  great  deal  to  degrade  the  community.  There  all 
sorts  of  iniquitous  appliances,  apparatus,  and  nostrums  designed 
to  produce  foeticide,  or  prevent  conception,  are  kept  for  sale,  and 
sold  without  question  to  all  who  ask  for  them.  And  this  is  only 
one  of  the  disgusting  features  of  the  drug  stores  of  the  present  day. 
The  •  druggists,  as  a  rule,  conspire  with  the  physicians  to  rob  the 
unfortunate  patients,  by  paying  large  percentages  on  prescriptions, 
and  charging  all  the  traffic  will  bear.  The  doctor  knows  that  the 
more  prescriptions  he  gives,  the  more  he  will  increase  his  income. 
The  druggist  knows  that  the  more  he  charges  for  the  prescription, 
the  larger  will  be  his  monthly  payment  to  the  doctor,  and  the 
better  the  latter  will  be  pleased.  As  a  result  the  doctor  gives 
unnecessary  prescriptions,  and  the  pharmacist  charges  extortion- 
ate prices  for  filling  them.  Besides  this,  the  average  druggist 
fattens  on  the  most  degrading  vices  of  humanity,  and  willingly 
supplies  opium,  morphine,  and  cocaine  victims  with  their  respect- 
ive drugs.  He  also  does  more  or  less  liquor  business  besides, 
and  in  various  ways  transgresses  the  moral  law." 


THE   AMERICAN    FAMILY.  33 

' '  I  should  think  it  would  be  almost  impossible  for  a  good  man 
to  engage  in  the  drug  business, ' '  remarked  Mrs.  Notion. 

' '  Oh,  there  are  good  men  in  it,  but  they  are  not  popular 
druggists,  and  have  a  perpetual  struggle  with  temptation.  Of 
course  each  particular  vocation  has  its  own  peculiar  snares  and 
moral  pitfalls,  but  that  of  pharmacy,  in  these  modern  days,  has 
more  to  the  square  inch  than  any  other  business  making  any  pre- 
tension to  respectability.  Besides,  many  of  the  druggists  have 
lost  all  confidence  in  the  beneficial  effects  of  the  prescriptions 
which  they  fill,  and  the  patent  medicines  which  they  sell.  One 
of  the  oldest  pharmacists  in  this  city  has  frankly  avowed  to  me 
that  the  whole  thing  was  a  sham,  and  has  expressed  the  opinion 
that  the  entire  medical  system  in  all  its  ramifications  is  a  delu- 
sion and  a  fraud." 

' '  How  about  the  pulpit  as  a  negative  agency  in  the  matter 
referred  to  ?  " 

"The  Protestant  ministers  of  this  country  are  criminally  silent 
on  the  subject.  They  are  afraid  to  speak  the  truth  specifically 
relative  to  this  vital  question.  Glittering  generalities  they  do 
occasionally  indulge  in,  but  they  purposely  and  persistently 
refrain  from  direct  appeals  to  the  consciences  of  their  hearers 
concerning  these  matters.  And  yet  they  must  be  aware  that 
many  of  the  most  active  members  of  their  churches  are  constantly 
violating  the  commandments  of  God  in  their  family  relations; 
that  women  prominent  in  religious  circles  are  taking  extreme 
measures  to  avoid  motherhood ;  that  fceticide  is  frequently  prac- 
tised by  professing  Christians;  that  the  families  of  church- 
members  are  proverbially  small;  that  the  few  women  in  the 
churches  who  have  large  families  are  held  up  as  objects  of  wonder 
and  commiseration ;  and  that  it  is  a  common  thing  for  religious 
workers  who  travel  a  good  deal  from  place  to  place,  to  avoid 
having  children.  In  fact,  I  have  been  informed  by  a  saintly  old 
lady  in  this  city,  that  several  women  of  her  acquaintance,  who 
were  members  of  the  church,  sent  for  her  on  their  death-beds, 
and  told  her  that  they  could  not  die  in  peace  until  they  had  con- 
fessed to  her  their  misdeeds  along  these  lines.  They  told  her 
what  they  would  not  tell  their  pastor." 

"Don't  you  think,  Edward,  that  motives  of  delicacy  have 
much  to  do  with  this  '  conspiracy  of  silence, '  if  I  may  speak  of  it 
as  such  ?  ' ' 

"Certainly.     There  is  a  great  deal  of  a  sort   of  superficial 


34  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

squeamishness,  falsely  called  modesty,  whicn  covers  over  the 
surface  of  things  with  smooth,  soft,  sweet  talk,  while  the  heart  of 
society  is  fairly  rotting  out.  While  ministers  are  preaching 
against  forms  of  sin  which  are  hardly  represented  in  their  congre- 
gations, or  congratulating  themselves  on  the  rapid  conversion  of 
the  world,  this  moral  cancer  is  eating  away  the  very  vitals  of  our 
nation,  and  embittering  and  ruining  the  lives  of  most  of  the  men 
and  women  who  listen  to  their  sermons. ' ' 

"  But  have  you  any  idea,  Ned,  that  the  people  would  submit 
to  the  truth  in  this  regard ;  that  they  would  endure  plain  talk  ?  ' ' 

"  Doubtless  many  of  them  would  not.  Paul  says  in  one  of  his 
epistles  that  the  time  will  come  when  men  will  not  endure  sound 
doctrine,  and  I  know  of  no  sounder  doctrine  than  that  which  is 
designed  to  secure  to  the  individual  his  primal  right — that  of 
being  born — and  to  prevent  the  physical  as  well  as  the  mental 
and  moral  destruction  of  the  people  of  America.  It  is  very  likely 
that  many  church-members  would  profess  to  be  outraged  by  such 
preaching;  that  they  would  stigmatize  it  as  gross,  vulgar,  low, 
brutal,  obscene,  indelicate,  immodest,  etc.,  etc.;  and  it  is  also 
quite  likely  that  the  very  persons  who  were  loudest  in  their 
denunciations  would  be  most  amenable  to  the  strictures  of  the 
preacher.  But  many  would  listen,  learn,  and  profit  by  the  light 
and  knowledge  thus  imparted.  Why,  Matilda,  you  have  no  idea 
of  the  ignorance  which  exists  among  intelligent  church-members 
on  these  themes.  I  have  talked  to  many  of  the  male  members 
about  them,  and  have  been  astonished  to  find  that  they  were 
perfectly  unconscious  of  the  dreadful  moral  guilt  involved  in  tam- 
pering with  the  procrcative  functions.  They  need  to  be  taught, 
and  the  saddest  need  in  the  pulpit  to-day  is  men  with  the  con- 
science, wisdom,  and  courage  to  cry  aloud  against  the  secret  sins 
which  are  devastating  American  homes  and  destroying  American 
society." 

"  \Vhat  do  you  think  of  the  Salvation  Army  in  this  respect?  " 

"I  am  sorry  to  say  that,  with  all  its  admirable  features,  it  is 
even  more  culpable  than  the  churches  in  these  matters.  Its  very 
constitution  is  incompatible  with  home  life.  The  two  ideas  <>i 
the  home  and  the  army  are  absolutely  and  irreconcilably  hostile. 
Domestic  virtues  do  not  flourish  amidst  the  stern  discipline, 
severe  hardships,  and  constant  motion  of  camps.  The  members 
of  the  Salvation  Army  are  under  orders  continually,  and  the 
officers  hold  themselves  in  readiness  to  go  to  the  ends  of  the  earth 


THE   AMERICAN    FAMILY.  35 

whenever  the  command  is  given,  and  with  hardly  a  moment's 
notice.  They  hold  nightly  religious  services,  and  march  regu- 
larly in  the  streets.  A  large  proportion  of  their  officers  are 
women.  What  opportunity  have  these  women  to  cultivate  the 
domestic  virtues  ?  A  woman  who  tramps  the  cobbles  and  attends 
meetings  every  night  in  the  week  is  not  fit  to  be  either  a  wife  or  a 
mother.  And  then,  if  she  be  an  officer,  she  must  obey  orders 
and  go  wherever  she  is  sent.  Under  these  conditions  it  is  not 
strange  that  child- having  is  discouraged  among  the  married 
members  of  this  organization.  Naturally  children  are  felt  to  be 
a  very  great  inconvenience,  and  I  doubt  not  the  time  will  come, 
as  it  did  in  the  history  of  the  Roman  Church,  when  the  rule  of 
celibacy  on  the  part  of  officers  will  be  made  and  enforced  just  as 
it  is  among  the  priests.  Now  the  officers  of  the  Salvation  Army 
do  marry,  and  their  marriages  are  generally  public  spectacles. 
Occasionally  they  have  children,  and  their  babies  are  publicly 
dedicated  to  God  and  the  army.  But  it  needs  no  argument  to 
show  that  they  know  nothing  of  the  comforts  and  blessings  of 
home. ' ' 

"You  surprise  me,  husband,  by  this  indictment  of  the  Salva- 
tion Army.  I  thought  it  was  well-nigh  perfect,  and  that  seems 
to  be  the  general  impression  nowadays.  A  few  years  ago  it  was 
greatly  ridiculed  and  persecuted,  but  to-day  it  is  the  most 
popular  organi/ation  in  the  world." 

' '  The  good  Book  says,  '  Woe  unto  you  when  all  men  speak 
well  of  you, '  and  I  fear  that  this  sudden  wave  of  prosperity  and 
popularity  will  have  a  demoralizing  influence  upon  the  Salvation 
Army.  As  yet,  however,  it  is  doing  excellent  work,  although  it 
does  not  take  a  very  close  observer  to  see  that  it  is  not  what  it 
was  a  few  years  ago.  It  inclines  too  much  to  street  pageants, 
and,  like  the  churches,  resorts  to  various  questionable  catch-penny 
schemes  for  the  purpose  of  swelling  its  revenues.  In  doing  this 
it  yields  to  one  of  the  greatest  temptations  of  all  the  ages,  and 
'docs  evil  that  good  may  come.'  But  the  idea  which  1  wish 
rspi-cially  to  emphasize  at  this  time  is  that  modern  society,  in  all 
its  phases,  is  hostile  to  the  home  life.  I  have  spoken  of  the 
causes  which  directly  militate  against  child-bearing;  but  in 
addition  to  these  there  are  many  others  which  injure  the  family 
incidentally,  by  impinging  upon  its  special  sphere.  The  devo- 
tees of  pleasure  have  little  time  or  energy  for  home,  and  their 
tastes  do  not  lie  in  that  direction.  Business  as  now  conducted, 


36  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

leaves  a  far  too  narrow  margin  for  the  domesticities.  Politics, 
reform,  philanthropy,  charity,  and  a  variety  of  literary,  artistic, 
and  educational  associations,  make  tremendous  drafts  upon,  the 
vitality  of  the  home  circle.  This  being  so,  it  should  be  the 
especial  care  and  mission  of  religion  to  conserve  and  reinforce  the 
domestic  life  in  every  possible  way.  But,  instead  of  so  doing, 
the  churches  make  such  imperious  demands  upon  the  time  and 
strength  of  their  members,  that  the  home  tends  more  and  more 
to  become  a  mere  boarding-house,  where  parents  and  children 
(if  there  are  "any)  eat  and  sleep,  and  occasionally  exchange  a 
few  hurried  words.  Without  intending  it,  they  are  gradually 
estranged  and  carried  farther  and  farther  apart  by  the  subtle  but 
potent  tides  which  sweep  with  ever-increasing  force  toward  the 
great  centers  of  human  life  and  thought. ' ' 

"And  no  one  knows  better  than  I  how  strong  they  are!" 
exclaimed  Mrs.  Notion.  "Over  and  over  again  I  have  resolved  to 
spend  more  time  at  home,  but  have  found  myself  unable  to  resist 
the  influences  which  ceaselessly  drew  me  in  other  directions.  I 
wonder  if  there  isn't  some  great  underlying  cause  for  all  this." 

"I  think  there  is,  my  dear.  This  stream  of  tendency  is  seen 
and  felt  everywhere.  It  is  a  kind  of  spiritual  or  social  gravita- 
tion, which  may  well  be  called  concentration,  and  the  operation 
of  which  is  to  draw  the  less  to  the  greater,  to  destroy  the  indi- 
viduality of  the  smallar  units  by  adding  them  to  the  larger  ones. 
It  is  contraction,  and  results  from  a  loss  of  warmth,  from  a  lack 
of  love.  As  contraction  in  physical  things  is  the  almost  invaria- 
ble consequent  of  cold,  so  in  the  moral,  spiritual,  mental,  social, 
and  industrial  realms  is  the  corresponding  phenomenon  induced 
by  the  dying  out  of  the  fires  of  affection." 

"  Why,  Edward,  I  don't  see  how  you  make  that  out." 

"Let  me  illustrate,  Matilda.  It  is  lack  of  family  affection 
that  permits  it  to  be  absorbed  in  the  church,  the  club,  the  associa- 
tion, and  other  larger  social  units.  It  is  lack  of  patriotism  or  love 
of  country  that  often  permits  nations  to  lose  their  autonomy  and 
become  consolidated  with  larger  states.  It  is  lack  of  independ- 
ence or  the  love  of  liberty  which  permits  the  individual  citixen 
to  lose  his  identity  and  become  merged  in  the  soulless,  artificial 
corporation.  It  is  lack  of  love  of  nature  and  the  old  homestead 
in  the  sheltered  vale  or  on  the  breezy  hill,  which  permits  the 
dwellers  of  the  rural  regions  to  be  pulled  into  the  maelstrom  of 
the  city.  It  is  lack  of  love  for  humanity  that  permits  the  con- 


THE   AMERICAN    FAMILY.  37 

stant  contraction  of  the  volume  of  money,  the  steady  monopoliza- 
tion of  natural  opportunities." 

' '  But  are  there  not  other  influences  at  work  to  bring  about 
these  results  ? ' ' 

"Certainly  there  are,  but  everywhere  we  behold  this  great 
tendency  of  consolidation,  concentration,  contraction,  the  ascend- 
ency of  the  centripetal  over  the  centrifugal;  and,  while  many 
olt'iiieiits  are  involved,  I  believe  that  the  lessening  of  the  streams 
of  human  affection  has  more  to  do  with  it  than  all  else  besides. 
In  view  of  all  this,  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  advocates  of  socialism, 
that  system  which  would  swallow  up  all  individuality  in  one 
great  governmental,  social  organism,  are  so  rapidly  increasing  in 
numbers." 

"1  want  to  hear  you  again  on  this  subject,  Edward,  but  first 
I  wish  you  would  continue  your  remarks  on  the  American 
family;  and  in  order  that  I  may  have  a  good  opportunity  to 
converse  with  you  to-morrow  evening  on  that  subject,  I  shall  stay 
away  from  the  Female  Suffrage  meeting  which  I  had  planned  to 
attend." 


Mr.  and  Mrs.  Notion  Have  a  Third  Conversa- 
tion on  the  "American  Family." 

"  The  best  school  of  discipline  is  home.  Family  life  is  God's  own 
method  of  truhiins*  the  young,  and  homes  are  very  much  as  women 
make  them." — Samuel  Smiles. 

"You  expressed  the  opinion  last  evening,  Ned,  that  the  tend- 
ency of  the  family  to  become  absorbed  in  larger  social  units  was 
principally  due  to  lack  of  affection.  Now,  I  should  like  to  know 
why  there  should  be  less  love  in  American  families  at  the  present 
time  than  in  former  days. ' ' 

"  For  the  simple  reason  that  they  are  so  much  smaller.  Love 
is  soul  warmth,  and,  other  things  being  equal,  a  small  fire  will 
not  produce  as  much  heat  as  a  larger  one." 

"And  do  you  pretend  to  say  that  there  is  any  necessary  cor- 
relation between  the  size  of  a  family  and  the  mutual  affection  of 
its  members  ? ' ' 

"I  do,  my  dear,  and  the  reason  is  not  far  to  seek.  Self- 
sacrifice  is  at  the  very  root  of  all  true  love,  and  self  must  be 
abnegated  more  in  a  large  household  than  in  a  small  one.  Each 
individual  must  subordinate  his  own  interests  to  those  of  the 
family  as  a  whole,  in  so  far  as  there  is  any  conflict  between  them. 
This  process  goes  on  invariably  in  things  mental  and  spiritual, 
and  generally  in  things  material.  There  are  families  whose 
wealth  is  so  abundant  that  the  necessity  for  material  sacrifices  on 
the  part  of  their  members  does  not  exist.  But,  as  a  rule,  the 
family's  financial  ability  is  closely  limited,  and  the  margin  of 
expenditure  over  and  above  mere  subsistence,  is  extremely  nar- 
row. This  margin  is  less  in  large  than  in  small  families,  and 
must  be  divided  into  more  parts,  each  of  which  is  consequently 
smaller.  In  order  that  this  division  may  be  equitably  and  ami- 
cably effected,  there  is  great  need  for  self-control,  self-denial, 
patience,  forbearance,  kindness,  charity,  and  other  admirable 
qualities,  in  parents  and  children  alike." 

"Then  you  think  that  the  mere  fact  of  being  compelled  to 

(38) 


THE  AMERICAN   FAMILY.  39 

share  with  others  a  fund  not  too  large  to  supply  all  our  own 
wants,  has  a  good  moral  tendency  ? ' ' 

"I  am  sure  of  it,  Matilda.  And  I  will  go  farther,  and  assert 
that  the  mental  and  physical  effects,  except  ill  extreme  cases,  are 
also  excellent.  The  large  family  with  a  small  income  is  a 
splendid  school  of  economy.  It  also  affords  the  best  kind  of 
opportunities  for  the  study  of  human  nature;  but  I  shall  have 
more  to  say  on  that  point  in  a  little  while.  You  can  see  at  a 
glance  that  the  many  deprivations  in  which  all  the  members  of 
the  family  share,  the  mutual  sacrifices  which  they  make  along 
material  lines,  and  the  common  interest  which  they  feel  in  the 
prosperity  of  the  household,  tend  to  knit  them  closely  together, 
to  develop  their  affectioual  nature,  and  to  enlarge  their  capacity 
for  loving." 

' '  And  then,  Ned,  there  are  the  sick  ones,  who  are  to  be  found 
at  least  occasionally  in  every  home.  The  care  and  watchfulness 
which  they  require,  call  for  additional  sacrifices  by  those  who 
are  Avell,  and  pity,  sympathy,  and  love  are  developed  by  many 
acts  of  kindness,  both  in  those  who  do  them,  and  those  for  whose 
sake  they  are  done. ' ' 

' '  You  catch  my  idea  exactly,  darling.  Take  our  own  expe- 
rience. Can  it  be  doubted  that  we  love  each  other  more  tenderly 
by  reason  of  our  mutual  sorrows  and  sufferings,  as  well  as  our 
mutual  joys  ?  Were  not  our  affections  more  closely  intertwined 
because  of  our  nightly  vigils  by  the  bedsides  of  our  darling  chil- 
dren, when  they  tossed  with  fever,  and  hovered  for  days  and 
weeks  at  the  very  portals  of  death?  God  has  spared  our  dear 
ones  to  us  thus  far;  but  few  are  the  families  where  the  death 
angel  has  not  come  and  taken  a  child  away.  The  hearts  of  the 
survivors  are  softened;  they  think  of  the  good  qualities  of  the  one 
who  is  gone;  they  grieve  deeply  over  their  own  shortcomings  and 
unkindnesses  toward  the  deceased,  and,  as  they  gaze  with  tear- 
ful eyes  around  the  family  circle,  and  see  other  dear  ones  still  in 
the  land  of  the  living,  their  hearts  are  melted  with  teuderest 
love,  and  they  resolve  that  they  will  henceforth  improve  every 
opportunity  to  show  their  appreciation  of  parents  and  brothers 
and  sisters,  and  make  them  happy. ' ' 

"You  said  something  a  moment  ago,  dear,  about  mental  and 
spiritual  sacrifices.  I  must  confess  that  I  don't  quite  apprehend 
your  meaning  in  that  regard. ' ' 

"There  are  always  diversities  of  tastes  and  talents  in   the 


40  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

members  of  a  family,"  replied  Mr.  Notion.  "  What  one  likes, 
another  dislikes.  It  is  impossible  to  spend  the  evening  hours, 
when  the  family  are  gathered  together,  in  such  a  way  as  to  please 
to  the  utmost  every  individual,  or  to  benefit  him  in  the  highest 
degree.  Preferences  must  be  waived,  prejudices  deferred  to,  and 
weaknesses  considered.  If  there  is  a  song  to  be  sung,  John  will 
want  one,  and  Dick  another,  while  Mary  would  prefer  a  third. 
If  a  book  is  to  be  read,  the  question  will  instantly  arise,  What 
book  ?  and  here  again  there  is  sure  to  be  contrariety  of  opinion. 
If  a  game  is  to  be  played,  the  difficulty  of  conflicting  wishes 
immediately  presents  itself,  for  some  eagerly  request  one  game, 
and  others  are  anxious  to  play  another.  These  matters  must 
either  be  settled  by  parental  authority,  or  by  a  spirit  of  com- 
promise, and  the  latter  plan  is  generally  adopted.  Thus  we  see 
that  domestic  life  is  a  series  of  compromises  and  mutual  conces- 
sions, not  only  by  parents,  but  by  children." 

' '  I  am  reminded  of  another  feature  of  home  life, ' '  remarked 
Mrs.  Notion,  ' '  and  that  is  what  might  be  termed  the  '  forlorn 
hope,'  or  the  disagreeable  duty  to  be  done  by  a  volunteer.  I 
know  of  nothing  which  has  a  greater  tendency  to  cultivate 
unselfishness  than  to  ask  any  one  of  a  number  of  children  to  vol- 
untarily do  something  which  involves  labor,  loss,  or  discomfort. 
This  sort  of  training  is  impossible  in  the  family  with  one  child, 
for  where  there  is  something  which  must  be  done,  and  only  one 
person  to  do  it,  the  principle  of  volunteering  is  inapplicable." 

' '  That  is  well  thought  of,  my  dear.  There  is  also  a  noticeable 
pairing  off  of  children  in  large  families.  Congenialities  and  simi- 
larities of  taste  are  continually  asserting  themselves,  and  Tom  and 
Henry  become  such  chums  that  they  have  neither  the  time  nor 
inclination  to  play  with  or  amuse  little  Edward  and  Edith. 
Here  again  is  an  occasion  for  wholesome  discipline,  for,  while 
these  biases  or  preferences  should  not  be  wholly  ignored  or  too 
harshly  dealt  with,  they  should  certainly  be  discouraged  in  their 
extreme  forms.  Character  is  not  to  be  cultivated  in  the  midst  of 
ceaseless  pleasures,  and  in  the  constant  society  of  congenial  com- 
panions. These  conditions  are  restful,  and  have  their  place. 
Patience,  unselfishness,  and  kindred  virtues,  however,  are  to  be 
developed,  not  along  the  line  of  least  resistance  or  greatest  trac- 
tion, but  in  the  face  of  difficulties  and  troubles.  Hence,  it 
follows  that  Tom  and  Henry  must  sacrifice  in  some  degree  their 
desire  to  fellowship  together  continually,  and  should  be  eiicour- 


THE   AMERICAN    FAMILY.  41 

aged  to  cultivate  the  noblest  traits  in  their  own  natures  at  the 
same  time  that  they  help  and  amuse  little  Edward  and  Edith. 
Nor  should  we  forget  that  in  large  families  the  children's  leisure 
time  is  frequently  devoted  to  the  welfare  of  their  brothers  and 
sisters,  and  that  many  hours  which  they  might  otherwise  spend 
in  reading  and  study,  are  occupied  in  helping  the  -younger  ones, 
who  are  not  so  well  able  to  help  themselves." 

"Oh,  I  can  see  very  readily,  Ned,  that  mental  sacrifices  must 
be  made;  but  how  do  you  reach  the  conclusion  that  spiritual 
sacrifices  must  also  take  place  under  the  conditions  which  you 
describe  ? ' ' 

' '  I  have  yet  to  know  of  a  family,  my  dear,  where  all  the 
children  are  on  a  plane  of  moral  equality.  Some  are  almost 
invariably  better  than  others,  and  even  where  this  is  not  so,  the 
strong  and  weak  traits  of  brothers  and  sisters  do  not  corre- 
spond. One  will  be  deficient  in  some  quality  in  which  another 
will  excel,  and  vice  versa.  These  facts  call  for  sacrifice.  If  there 
are  two  patient,  amiable  children,  and  two  cross,  irascible  ones 
in  the  same  family,  it  is  only  natural  that  the  two  attractive  ones 
should  desire  each  other's  society.  But  it  is  equally  natural  that 
their  wish  should  not  be  gratified.  The  cross  children,  tired  of 
quarreling  with  each  other,  will  seek  relief  in  the  company  of  the 
cheerful,  agreeable  ones,  and  will  constantly  interfere  with  and 
mar  their  pleasant  intercourse.  But  this,  though  involving 
sacrifice,  is  just  what  it  should  be.  The  good  qualities  of  the 
amiable  will  be  tried  and  strengthened  by  frequent  contact  with 
the  hateful,  and  the  faults  of  the  latter  will  be  modified  and 
mitigated  by  the  admirable  example  of  the  former.  I  might 
mention  many  other  ways  in  which  spiritual  or  moral  sacrifices 
must  be  made  in  the  homes  of  which  we  speak.  But  I  wish  to 
refer  to  another  phase  of  the  subject,  namely,  the  knowledge  of 
domestic  affairs  which  is  gained  in  such  families.  The  girls 
learn  to  take  care  of  babies,  to  cook,  to  wash,  to  mend,  and  in 
numerous  ways  to  lighten  mother' s  toil.  Their  social  nature  is 
expanded  and  developed;  in  the  busy  hum  of  the  household  their 
normal  faculties  have  constant  play,  and  there  is  little  likelihood 
of  their  falling  into  morbid  modes  of  thought  or  life.  Girls  thus 
reared  make  better  wives  than  the  spoiled  darlings  of  fortune  who 
have  a  monopoly  of  parental  affection,  whose  every  whim  is 
gratified,  and  who  are  not  compelled  by  necessity  to  learn  the 
mysteries  of  housekeeping." 


42  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

Mrs.  Notion  laughed  merrily,  and  said:  "I  wonder  if  you 
courted  me  because  I  was  one  of  a  family  of  nine  children,  and 
spent  more  time  in  playing  on  the  washboard  and  sewing-machine 
than  on  the  piano." 

"  I  do  not  wish  to  give  myself  credit  for  more  wisdom  than  I 
really  possessed  when  I  was  a  young  man;  but  I  assure  you  that 
your  proficiency  in  all  the  useful  arts  of  the  household  was  not  the 
least  of  your  attractions  in  our  courtship  days.  My  salary  was 
small  then,  and  I  felt  the  need  of  a  helpmeet  who  could  manage 
matters  economically  and  make  the  most  of  everything.  I  was 
confident  that  you  possessed  this  ability,  and  that  confidence  has 
not  been  disappointed." 

The  shades  of  evening  were  darkening  the  room,  and  Mr. 
Notion  thoughtfully  walked  to  the  window  and  drew  up  the 
curtains.  His  wife  stood  beside  him,  and  with  clasped  hands 
they  looked  wistfully  toward  the  western  sky,  all  gilded  with 
glory  by  the  setting  sun. 

"The  dark  clouds  of  this  morning  have  all  cleared  away, 
darling,"  said  Mrs.  Notion  softly,  "and  the  sun  has  set  in 
serene  beauty.  How  calm  is  this  evening  hour!  I  pray  that  our 
lives  may  find  a  close  as  sweet  and  radiant  and  restful  as  the 
setting  of  the  sun  which  has  just  disappeared  from  view  behind 
the  western  hills. ' ' 

"Why,  my  dear,  you  are  very  sentimental  this  evening,  and 
I  am  glad  to  see  it,  for  it  reminds  me  of  the  evenings  long  ago 
when  we  sat  together  as  lovers,  and  talked  of  the  beautiful  and 
grand  and  heroic  side  of  life.  How  gaily  our  hearts  danced 
then,  and  how  brilliantly  the  future  shone!  In  the  magnetism  of 
your  presence,  and  the  light  of  your  eyes,  my  thoughts  flowed 
on  in  melodious  cadence;  the  whole  world  seemed  brimful  of  joy, 
and  our  lives  were  like  a  dreamy  song  set  to  the  soft  music  of  the 
spheres." 

"  Ned,  if  you  keep  on  talking  that  way,  I  shall  imagine  I  am 
a  girl  again,  and  that  the  journey  of  life  lies  before  us  as  tempt- 
ing and  beautiful  as  it  did  a  score  of  years  ago." 

"Well,  Matilda,  I  believe  we  were  talking  about  the  knowl- 
edge of  housekeeping,  etc.  To  put  it  concisely,  I  would  rather 
marry  a  good  cook  than  a  poor  piano-player.  But  there  are 
other  advantages  to  be  derived  by  the  members  of  large  families. 
One  is  the  knowledge  of  human  nature  acquired  by  the  children. 
They  see  each  other  as  they  really  are,  in  all  the  openness  of 


THK   AMERICAN    FAMILY.  43 

nature,  and  without  the  conventional  masks  and  disguises  which 
society  prescribes.  They  find  out  the  methods  which  move  the 
human  will,  and  learn  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  individual 
idiosyncrasies  and  peculiarities  of  brothers  and  sisters.  They 
soon  discover  that  the  mode  of  action  which  will  prove  effective 
with  one  will  fail  with  another.  They  ascertain  in  this  way 
during  the  years  of  childhood  the  springs  and  motives  of  human 
action,  and  acquire  a  knowledge  of  human  nature,  and  skill  in 
adjusting  themselves  to  it,  which  are  invaluable  throughout  the 
battle  of  life.  Nor  do  they  expect  too  much  from  the  world 
Coming  forth  from  a  family  where  they  have  experienced  a  good 
many  hard  knocks  and  rough  jostles,  they  take  it  for  granted  that 
they  will  get  more  of  the  same  sort  of  treatment.  They  are 
accustomed  to  give  as  well  as  take,  and  are  not  at  all  surprised 
to  discover  that  that  is  the  world's  method.  In  consequence  of 
this  training,  and  the  strength  in  every  department  of  their  being 
which  has  come  from  the  varied  gymnastics  of  home,  they  lose  no 
time  in  adapting  and  adjusting  themselves  to  the  serious  work  of 
life,  but  begin  at  once  in  a  practical  way  their  real  career.  That 
they  generally  succeed  goes  without  saying.  Look  out  into  every 
field  of  human  action  and  endeavor,  and  you  will  find  in  the  very 
van  the  men  who  have  emerged  from  these  domestic  hives.  The 
young  men  and  women  who  sisterless  and  brotherless  have  passed 
through  life's  initial  stages,  cannot  as  a  rule  compete  with  the 
robust,  stalwart  specimens  of  humanity  whom  I  have  just 
described. ' ' 

"Your  argument  is  very  ingenious,  Ned,  but  are  there  no 
compensating  features  about  the  small  family?  Are  the  advan- 
tages all  in  favor  of  the  large  family  ?  Now,  it  occurs  to  me  that 
the  parents  who  have  only  one  child  will  love  it  more  than  those 
\vlio  have  a  dozen,  and  they  will  care  for  it  more  tenderly,  and 
devote  more  time  and  pains  to  its  nurture  and  development." 

"I  am  glad  that  you  have  brought  out  that  idea,  Matilda, 
for  it  is  a  popular  one  nowadays.  Its  error,  however,  lies  in  the 
assumption  that  the  parental  love  Avill  be  greater  when  concen- 
trated upon  one  child  than  when  bestowed  upon  several;  that  it  is 
a  fixed  quantity  which  is  divided  into  parts,  one  of  which  is  given 
to  each  child;  and  that,  consequently,  the  whole  being  greater 
than  any  of  its  parts,  the  affection  which  is  not  thus  subdivided  is 
greater  than  any  of  the  parts  of  that  which  is.  I  assert  with 
confidence,  however,  that  the  parent  loves  each  child  with  an 


44  DOMESTIC   DUKI.S. 

undivided  affection,  and  with  the  whole  heart;  that  the  entire  scope 
and  intensity  of  his  love  is  concentrated  upon  each  of  his  children. 
I  appeal  to  your  own  experience.  Did  you  love  Tom  any  the 
less  when  Henry  was  born  ?  and  was  your  affection  for  your  first 
six  children  diminished  any  by  the  birth  of  the  seventh?" 

''On  the  contrary,  Edward,  it  was  increased.  It  seems  to  me 
as  though  I  loved  all  my  children  more  with  each  addition  to 
their  number.  And  yet  I  had  never  looked  at  it  in  that  light 
before. ' ' 

"The  fact  is,"  said  Mr.  Notion,  "that  the  faculty  of  loving 
grows  stronger  with  its  exercise,  and  that  our  capacity  to  love 
increases  in  an  exact  ratio  with  the  number  of  persons  whom  we 
love.  This  is  the  philosophy  of  religion,  the  principle  Avhich 
underlies  the  great  commandment  enunciated  by  Christ  that  we 
should  love  God  supremely  and  our  neighbor  as  ourselves.  The 
affectional  nature  of  the  mother  of  one  child  is  small  and  shriveled 
compared  to  that  of  the  mother  of  several.  This  is  assuming,  of 
course,  that  they  are  equal  originally,  and  that  the  former  does 
not  supplement  the  domestic  objects  of  her  love  by  others  in  the 
great  world  without  the  home.  If  I  am  right  in  this,  it  follows 
inevitably  that  the  mother  of  one  child  who  voluntarily  declines 
the  privilege  of  having  others,  will  love  that  child  less  than  the 
equally  gifted  mother  of  a  dozen." 

"Do  you  think,  Edward,  that  as  she  loves  her  child  less,  she 
will  love  her  husband  more  ? ' ' 

"Not  at  all.  The  chances  are  that  she  will  love  him  less,  and 
herself  more,  for  undeveloped  affectional  capacity  tends  to  trans- 
form itself  into  selfishness.  The  woman  who  does  nothing  for 
others  always  expects  them  to  do  more  for  her  than  she  would  if 
she  were  helpful  to  them.  It  is  the  helpful  classes  of  people  that 
need  least  help.  Take  the  gentlemen  and  ladies  of  fashion,  \\lio 
neither  toil  nor  spin,  and  see  how  constantly  they  require  the 
services  of  others.  Their  lives  are  keyed  up  to  such  an  artificial 
pitch  that  they  would  be  miserable  if  deprived  for  a  single  day  of 
the  assistance  and  labors  of  many  persons.  Thus  they  become 
dependent,  and  their  happiness  instead  of  being  interior  and 
subjective,  is  largely  a  matter  of  externalities  which  fluctuates 
with  its  environment." 

"I  think  I  can  see,"  said  Mrs.  Notion,  "how  you  would 
apply  these  principles  to  the  childless  wife.  I  suppose  you  would 
argue  that,  having  no  children  to  help  and  amuse,  she  would 
desire  to  be  herself  helped  and  amused;  that  her  leisure  time  would 


THE   AMERICAN    FAMILY.  45 

be  dedicated  to  her  own  use;  that  she  would  consequently  become 
more  and  more  self- occupied  and  self-conscious;  and  that  as  she 
became  more  and  more  intensely  interested  in  her  own  comfort  and 
pleasure,  she  would  be  less  and  less  concerned  about  the  welfare 
and  happiness  of  her  husband." 

"I  see,  my  dear,  that  it  will  no  longer  be  necessary  for  me  to 
elaborate  or  elucidate  my  ideas,  or  to  explain  my  meaning  in 
detail,  when  conversing  with  you.  A  mere  suggestion  of  the 
general  principle  upon  which  I  rely  is  sufficient.  You  grasp  the 
point  immediately,  and  apply  the  principle  to  the  case  in  hand 
more  clearly  and  more  concisely  than  I  am  capable  of  doing. ' ' 

"Fie,  fie,  Ned;  no  flattery, -please." 

"I  assure  you  I  mean  every  word  of  it.  You  have  become  so 
familiar  with  my  mental  processes,  that  when  you  see  the  start, 
you  can  predict  the  finish.  This  indicates  that  I  am  systematic 
in  my  methods,  for  otherwise  you  would  not  be  able  to  anticipate 
my  ideas.  But  what  are  the  practical  results  of  these  psycholog- 
ical tendencies  in  every-day  life?  Simply  these:  that  the  woman 
who  declines  motherhood  falls  into  idleness,  lovelessness,  and 
selfishness.  Her  little  life  becomes  self-centered,  and  she  soon 
gets  to  regard  her  husband  as  a  mere  convenience,  who  exists  for 
her  benefit,  and  whose  value  is  to  be  gauged  by  his  ability  to 
contribute  to  her  pleasure.  While  he  works  hard  every  day  for 
the  means  of  subsistence,  she  enjoys  an  elegant  leisure.  While 
he  habitually  obeys  and  bends  his  will  to  that  of  his  employer, 
she  is  complete  mistress  of  her  time  and  movements.  While  he 
walks  wearily  homeward  from  his  day's  toil,  she  rides  home  from 
the  matinee.  While  he  wonders  how  he  can  make  his  clothes 
last  a  month  or  two  longer,  she  wonders  what  kind  of  material  she 
will  buy  for  her  new  gowns,  and  what  style  she  will  adopt  for  her 
new  bonnets.  While  he  exhausts  his  ingenuity  in  the  effort  to 
make  both  ends  meet,  she  is  perplexed  in  the  endeavor  to  find 
new  ways  of  spending  money.  While  he  is  laboring  through  the 
torrid  summer,  she  is  either  enjoying  a  long  vacation,  or  seeking 
to  restore  her  health  by  a  change  of  scenery  and  climate." 

"Isn't  that  rather  too  severe,  Ked?  " 

"Exceptions  may  be  found  to  every  rule,  but  I  am  talking  of 
a  large  class.  There  are  other  reasons,  however,  why  the  child- 
less .home  is  so  often  unblessed  with  conjugal  love,  and  why  so 
many  married  women  refuse  to  bear  their  share  of  the  burdens  of 
life,  and  become  mere  parasites.  I  shall  refer  to  them  in  our 
next  conversation." 


Mr.  and  Mrs.  Notion  Discuss  the  Effect  of 

Tampering  with  the  Procreative 

Functions. 

"  God  sent  us  children  for  another  purpose  than  merely  to  keep  up  the 
race:  to  enlarge  our  hearts;  to  make  us  unselfish,  and  full  of  kindly 
sympathies  and  affections;  to  give  our  souls  higher  aims,  and  to  call  out 
all  our  faculties  to  extended  enterprise  and  exertion;  to  bring  round  our 
firesides  bright  faces,  and  happy  smiles,  and  loving,  tender  hearts." — 
Mary  Howitt. 

"What  a  mockery  of  married  life  is  that  which  I  tried  to 
describe  last  eveiiing!  What  a  horrid  caricature  of  the  holy 
ideals  of  matrimony!  This  woman,  who  calls  herself  a  wife,  and 
who  is  so  recognized  by  the  law,  performs  no  true  wifely  functions. 
She  acts  on  the  principle  that  it  is  more  blessed  to  receive  than  to 
give.  She  takes  it  for  granted  that  she  shall  have  all  the  play, 
and  her  husband  all  the  work.  She  never  dreams  that  recip- 
rocity is  one  of  the  essential  elements  of  marriage,  and  that 
mutual  love  is  its  very  soul.  She  fondly  imagines  from  the  mere 
fact  of  her  sex  that  she  has  a  claim  to  the  unrequited  devotion, 
unrepaid  service,  and  unreciprocated  love  of  her  husband,  and  is 
blissfully  unconscious  of  the  terrible  truth  that  she  is  one  of  that 
most  degraded  class  of  beings,  called  parasites." 

"And  do  you  contend,  Mr.  Notion,  that  all  this  degradation 
results  from  the  mere  failure  to  have  children  ? ' ' 

"No,  indeed.  There  are  many  excellent  women  who  would 
delight  to  have  little  ones  whom  they  could  call  their  own,  whose 
greatest  disappointment  in  life  is  their  deprivation  of  the  privi- 
leges of  motherhood.  These,  however,  do  not  permit  the  streams 
of  their  affection  to  stagnate  and  die,  but  are  sure  to  find  suitable 
objects  of  their  love.  I  am  speaking  of  the  women  who  persist- 
ently and  deliberately  evade  the  responsibilities  of  motherhood 
from  selfish  or  other  pernicious  motives.  These  experience  to  the 
full  the  evil  effects  which  I  have  described,  and  others  which  I 
hesitate  to  discuss." 
(46) 


ABUSE    OF    PROCREATIVE    FUNCTIONS.  47 

"Please  continue,  my  dear;  I  am  very  anxious  to  get  all  your 
ideas  on  this  subject,  for  you  have  given  it  much  more  thought 
than  I  suspected." 

"Well,  the  fact  is  that  marriage  is  a  physical  as  well  as  a 
mental  and  moral  union.  The  Almighty  designed  that  one  of 
the  ties  uniting  husband  and  wife  should  be  sexual  love,  as  contra- 
distinguished from  all  other  kinds  of  affection,  and  that  closely 
correlated  with  and  resulting  from  this  should  be  the  propagation 
of  the  human  species.  These  two  elements  are  indissoluble,  and 
all  efforts  to  enjoy  the  former  while  disregarding  the  latter,  are 
exceedingly  disastrous  in  their  effects.  Nature's  laws  can  not  be 
nullified  without  paying  the  penalty,  which  in  this  case  is  mental 
and  moral,  as  well  as  physical.  As  we  have  both  remarked  in 
previous  conversations,  ill  health,  especially  on  the  part  of  the 
female  culprit,  is  the  invariable  consequence  of  such  attempts  to 
enjoy  the  privileges  of  conjugal  love,  without  performing  the 
duties  legitimately  resulting  from  its  exercise.  But  the  deteriora- 
tion in  physical  health  is  the  least  of  the  punishments  inflicted. 
The  unnatural  manner  in  which  the  spouses  live  together  changes 
their  disposition,  making  them  irritable  and  faultfinding,  and 
eventually  destroys  their  mutual  love.  Those  moments  of  marital 
intercourse,  which  should  be  among  the  happiest  of  their  lives,  are 
haunted  by  the  fear  of  conception,  and  polluted  by  unholy  con- 
trivances looking  toward  its  prevention.  In  course  of  time  these 
episodes  in  married  life  become  mutually  distasteful,  and  husband 
and  wife  grow  more  and  more  estranged. ' ' 

"I  really  think,  Mr.  Notion,  that  this  is  more  frequently  the 
fault  of  the  husband  than  the  wife.  You  must  not  make  the 
mistake  of  assuming  that  the  women  are  alone  in  their  aversion  to 
children.  I  know  of  cases  where  wives  would  be  glad  to  bear 
them,  but  are  prevented  from  so  doing  by  their  husbands." 

' '  I  have  no  doubt,  Matilda,  that  in  many  cases  there  is  a 
perfect  agreement  between  the  spouses  in  this  matter,  and  that 
instances  can  be  found  where  the  man's  objections  to  the  birth  of  a 
child  are  stronger  than  those  of  tin?  woman.  But  i  am  confident 
that  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases  the  wives  have  a  much  m< in- 
decided  antipathy  to  the  assumption  of  parental  responsibilities 
than  have  their  husbands." 

' '  In  this  connection,  Edward,  Mrs.  Lille  Devereux  Blake 
says,  in  her  work  called  'Woman's  Place  To-day,'  that  'in- 
stances are  by  no  means  rare  in  which  the  husband  acted  and 


48  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

spoke  as  if  the  coming  of  a  child  was  an  invention  on  the  part  of 
his  wife,  which  he  had  good  reason  to  resent,  and  made  her  con- 
dition a  reason  for  denying  to  her  what  few  indulgences  her  life 
could  have,  on  the  ground  that  closer  economy  must  be  practised, 
speaking  always  as  if  the  baby  were  an  extravagance  of  her  own ; 
and  yet  this  same  man  would  have  been  very  indignant  at  any 
denial  of  what  he  considered  his  marital  rights.'  Mrs.  Blake 
then  goes  on  to  say  that  if  women  do  practise  any  of  these  vile 
arts,  they  are  undoubtedly  nine  times  out  of  ten  persuaded  or 
driven  to  thein  by  their  husbands.  But,  even  assuming  that  you 
are  correct  in  your  statement  that  the  women  are  oftener  the  cul- 
prits, it  is  quite  natural  that  this  should  be  the  case,  for  they  have 
to  endure  all  the  suffering,  and  upon  them  falls  the  heavy  burden 
of  the  care  of  helpless  infancy.  You  wholly  ignore  this  fact, 
and  speak  as  though  the  assumption  of  fatherhood  required  as 
great  sacrifices  as  that  of  motherhood. ' ' 

"I  did  not  intend  to  be  so  understood,  Matilda.  No  one 
realizes  more  keenly  than  I  tlie  pain,  self-denial,  and  constant 
nervous  strain  which  the  faithful  mother  is  called  upon  to  expe- 
rience in  bearing  and  rearing  a  child." 

"Pshaw,  Ned,  you  don't  realize  it  at  all.  It  is  very  easy  for 
you  to  sit  there  looking  as  wise  as  Solomon,  and  philosophize 
about  the  duties  of  women,  and  the  awful  consequences  of  their 
derelictions.  But  I  just  wish  you  had  to  go  through  the  pangs 
of  maternity,  and  to  learn  by  actual  experience  what  it  means  to 
have  the  constant  care  of  children.  Actually,  you  knoAV  nothing 
about  these  things.  You  are  not  capable  of  forming  any  ade- 
quate idea  of  the  worry,  anxiety,  and  annoyance  which  are 
inseparable  from  the  cure  of  children. ' ' 

"  Oh,  I  do  know  something  about  these  things,  Matilda!  " 

"You  think  you  do,  but  you  don't.  Theorize  you  may,  but 
your  ignorance  of  the  practical  part  of  the  matter  is  almost 
complete.  I  really  believe,  if  you*  had  to  endure  the  suffering 
incidental  to  childbirth  just  once,  you  would  never  consent  to 
its  repetition." 

"You  may  be  right,  Matilda;  but  your  remarks  savor  of 
exaggeration. ' ' 

' '  Well,  I  mean  every  word  of  it.  You  are  very  brave  about 
some  things,  but  I  have  noticed  that  you  make  a  dreadful  fuss 
about  the  least  pain.  If  you  have  a  slight  headache,  every  one 
in  the  house  has  to  sympathize  with  you,  and  when  you  catch  a 


ABUSK    OF    PUOCIIKATIVE    FUNCTIONS.  49 

little  cold,  you  act  like  a  martyr,  and  publish  the  news  to  the 
entire  household." 

"But  I'm  not  a  bit  afraid  of  mice  and  spiders,"  retorted 
Mr.  Notion. 

"No,  you  men  haven't  sense  enough  to  know  when. there  is 
real  danger,  but  when  your  precious  bodies  are  hurt,  you  act  as 
if  the  whole  universe  were  out  of  joint." 

"I'm  not  afraid  of  the  dark,  darling,  and  don't  look  under 
the  bed  every  night  before  retiring." 

' '  That  only  goes  to  show  how  careless  and  thoughtless  you  are. 
Darkness  requires  caution,  and  burglars  have  often  been  found 
hiding  under  beds.  But  when  it  comes  to  the  endurance  of 
pain,  we  little  women  bear  in  silence,  or  conceal  beneath  a  smil- 
ing face,  agonies  so  excruciating  that  you  men,  if  compelled  to 
suffer  them,  would  make  the  air  vocal  with  your  cries. ' ' 

' '  There  is  much  truth  in  what  you  say, ' '  answered  Mr.  Notion 
soothingly.  ' '  God  has  endowed  your  sex  with  great  powers  of 
endurance,  so  far  as  physical  anguish  is  concerned,  and  the  mere 
fact  that  he  has  done  so  shows  that  the  divine  purpose  is  to  qualify 
you  in  every  way  for  the  performance  of  maternal  functions. 
You  are  called  upon  to  suffer  more  than  men,  but  there  is  com- 
pensation in  the  fact  that  you  suffer  gracefully,  and  that  bodily 
pain  does  not  overcome  you  as  it  does  men." 

"But,"  remarked  Mrs.  Notion,  changing  the  subject  with 
charming  abruptness,  "you  were  speaking  of  how  the  fear  of 
conception,  and  the  devices  resulting  from  it,  made  conjugal 
experiences  mutually  disagreeable,  and  thus  estranged  the 
spouses." 

' '  I  am  glad  you  brought  me  back  to  the  point,  my  dear,  for 
I  was  digressing  much  further  than  1  had  intended.  Let  me  say 
right  here  that  all  illegitimate  methods  for  the  prevention  of  off- 
spring are  immodest  and  disgusting,  and  can  not  be  practised 
without  degrading  those  who  are  guilty  of  them.  They  imply 
a  deliberation  which  is  altogether  incompatible  with  ideal  conjugal 
intercourse,  which  should  always  he  >]>ontaneoiis,  and  the  result 
of  mutual  inclination.  When  a  husband  and  wile  get  so  demor- 
alixed  that  they  are  capable  of  cold-bloodedly  planning  and 
executing  the  means  of  prevention,  they  have  lost  the  ability  as 
well  as  the  art  of  love,  and  arc  criminals  in  the  sight  of  God. 
As  such,  they  are  not  to  be  trusted,  and  in  innumerable  instances 
when  opportunity  and  inclination  concur,  they  are  guilty  of 
infidelity  to  their  marriage  vows." 
4 


50  DOMESTIC   DUKI-. 

"I  can  not  entirely  agree  with  you  there,  Ned.  While  I 
share  your  aversion  to  all  such  practises,  I  can  not  bring  myself 
to  believe  -that  all  who  are  guilty  of  them  are  untrustworthy  in 
their  marital  relations.  So  almost  universal  have  these  sins 
become  in  our  country,  that  to  make  them  the  equivalent  of 
connubial  infidelity,  would  be  tantamount  to  a  declaration  that 
the  institution  of  marriage  in  America  is  a  total  failure.  No, 
no,  Ned.  Too  many  of  my  lady  friends  are  addicted  to  these 
methods  of  prevention  for  me  to  think  for  a  moment  of  doubting 
their  virtue."  - 

"Mind  you,  Matilda,  I  do  not  say  that  all  these  married 
persons,  or  even  a  majority  of  them,  are  actually  false  to  their 
wedded  vows,  but  simply  that  the  very  basis  of  their  virtue  is 
undermined,  and  that  they  are  not  able  to  resist  the  storm  and 
stress  of  temptation  when  it  comes.  Doubtless  in  most  cases  it 
never  comes,  and  hence  the  structure  of  their  virtue,  though 
insecure,  is  never  overthrown. ' ' 

"  But  do  you  go  so  far,"  inquired  "Mrs.  Notion,  "as  to  con- 
tend that  married  people  do  not  possess  the  moral  right  to  limit 
the  number  of  their  children  under  any  circumstances  or  in  any 
way?" 

"No,  indeed,"  replied  her  husband.  "On  the  contrary,  I 
believe  it  to  be  not  only  the  privilege  but  the  duty  of  those  who 
occupy  the  marriage  relation  to  refrain  from  bringing  children 
into  the  world  under  circumstances  which  would  manifestly 
militate  against  the  welfare  of  those  children.  Considerations 
of  health,  morality,  and  finance  should  be  permitted  to  have  due 
weight." 

"  I  do  not  fully  understand  you,  Ned. ' ' 

"What  I  mean  is  this:  Persons  whose  physical  condition  is 
such  that  they  are  almost  certain  to  transmit  disease  or  an  heredi- 
tary tendency  to  disease  to  their  children,  should  not  have  off- 
spring while  such  condition  lasts.  Spouses  who  are  dependent 
upon  charity  for  their  own  support,  have  no  right  to  become 
parents.  Where  either  spouse  is  wholly  unfit  either  to  procreate 
children  who  will  be  sound  physically,  mentally,  and  morally,  or 
to  train  them  when  born,  it  is  the  plain  duty  of  the  other  spouse 
to  adopt  every  legitimate  method  of  prevention." 

' '  If  it  is  the  husband  who  is  to  do  the  prevention, ' '  remarked 
Mrs.  Notion,  "his  task  will  be  a  comparatively  easy  one;  but 
if  the  wife,  her  way  will  be  beset  with  difficulties.  However, 
much  depends  upon  what  you  consider  '  legitimate.' ' 


ABUSE   OF    PROCREATIVE    FUNCTIONS.  51 

' '  In  my  opinion,  Matilda,  there  are  but  two  legitimate  means 
of  avoiding  conception.  One  is  complete  and  the  other  is  partial 
continence.  But  both  of  these  are  objectionable  in  many  ways, 
and  should  only  be  adopted  in  extreme  cases.  Persons  in  ordi- 
nary circumstances,  and  enjoying  ordinary  health,  should  not  seek 
to  regulate  the  number  of  their  children,  but  should  live  together 
in  a  natural  and  rational  manner,  and  leave  to  Providence  the 
giving  or  withholding  of  offspring. ' ' 

"Don't  you  think,  my  dear,  that  married  persons  have  a 
right  to  decide  whether  the  state  of  their  finances  will  justify  them 
in  incurring  the  risk  of  childbirth  ?  ' ' 

"Most  certainly  I  do  not,  except,  as  I  just  stated,  in  extreme 
cases.  We  have  no  means  of  knowing  how  many  children  we 
are  capable  of  supporting,  or  how  many  we  will  be  called  upon  to 
care  for.  That  should  be  left  to  the  Almighty." 

"Why,  Ned,  where  a  man  has  a  fixed  income,  and  has  all  he 
can  do  to  support  his  family,  should  not  prudential  considerations 
have  some  influence  in  preventing  the  increase  of  such  a  family  ? ' ' 

* '  Not  at  all ;  and  for  this  simple  reason.  We,  for  instance, 
know  what  our  family  is  to-day,  but  we  have  no  idea  what  it  will 
be  next  year,  or  next  week  for  that  matter.  We  have  seven 
children,  and  are  thankful  for  them;  but  have  we  any  right  to 
assume  that  they  will  all  be  alive  a  year  hence  ?  It  follows  from 
this  that  we  are  not  in  possession  of  the  data  which  will  enable  us 
to  calculate  with  any  degree  of  certainty  in  these  matters." 

"  I  am  acquainted  with  persons  who  assert  that  the  conjugal  act 
is  only  lawful  when  done  with  the  express  purpose  of  having 
children." 

"Such  views,  Matilda,  are  in  direct  conflict  with  the  teachings 
of  reason  and  the  Bible,  and  are  most  mischievous  in  their 
tendency.  If  the  Almighty  had  intended  us  to  live  on  such  a 
principle,  he  would  undoubtedly  have  constituted  us  so  that  it 
would  be  at  least  possible  to  do  so." 

"And  so  you  think,  Ned,  that  much  of  the  abounding  marital 
unhappiness  of  these  times  is  due  to  the  perversion  of  the  conjugal 
relation?" 

"I  am  positive  of  it,"  replied  Mr.  Notion  with  emphasis. 
' '  To  this  cause  probably  more  than  all  others  must  be  ascribed 
the  multiplicity  of  divorces,  and  the  great  prevalence  of  prosti- 
tution. Much  of  the  licentiousness  of  married  men  is  to  be 
accounted  for  in  this  way.  Connubial  love,  not  allowed  to  flow 


52  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

in  its  proper  channels,  becomes  diverted  therefrom,  and  flows  in 
unlawful  directions.  Men  and  women  whose  own  homes  have 
been  thus  robbed  of  happiness,  become  the  invaders  of  other 
homes,  and  double  divorces  are  often  obtained  in  order  that  the 
unholy  love  of  husband  and  wife  for  other  wife  and  husband  may 
be  gratified.  How  many  men,  think  yon,  will  constantly  endure 
a  wife's  rebuffs  of  their  tenderest  approaches  without  loss  of  love 
and  sacrifice  of  virtue  ? ' ' 

"  There  is  an  old  proverb,  Ned,  about  the  hatred  of  '  a  woman 
scorned,'  but  I  have  no  idea  that  men  are  so  sensitive  as  women 
on  such  points. ' ' 

"There  you  are  mistaken.  There  is  probably  nothing  more 
calculated  to  wound  a  man's  feelings  to  the  quick  than  a  repulse 
by  his  wife  at  the  very  moment  when  his  affectioual  nature  is 
most  in  the  ascendency.  Under  such  circumstances,  the  man 
who  is  not  thoroughly  established  in  virtue,  becomes  desperate, 
and  is  likely  to  violate  his  marriage  vows. ' ' 

"The  more  shame  to  him  if  he  does.  I  thought  men  were 
strong  and  noble ;  that  they  rose  to  the  emergency,  and  conquered 
their  environment;  that  women  alone  were  weak  and  erring,  and 
likely  to  fall  in  the  moment  of  terrible  temptation.  But  you,  like 
all  other  men,  are  incapable  of  looking  at  anything  from  a 
woman's  standpoint.  You  see  through  male  eyes.  You  look  at 
the  male  side  of  every  question,  and  sympathize  with  your  fellows 
in  every  inconvenience  they  experience  in  their  relation  with 
women;  but  you  never  consider  the  matter  from  the  position  of 
woman,  and  never  stop  to  think  of  what  her  feelings  and  suffer- 
ings must  be." 

"  Perhaps  most  men  do  not,  and  it  is  quite  possible  that  I  fail 
to  enter  into  the  feelings  of  your  sex  to  the  extent  that  L  should. 
But,  believe  me,  Matilda,  I  do  try  to  look  from  all  possible 
standpoints  at  every  question  that  comes  before  me,  and,  if  it  be 
a  matter  involving  the  relations  of  the  sexes,  I  endeavor  to  regard 
it  dispassionately,  and  to  reach  just  conclusions." 

"To  be  sure  you  do,  Mr.  Notion.  But  you  are  a  perfect 
paragon.  You  are  a  model.  You  are  incapable  of  making  a 
mistake,  or  misjudging  anything.  Your  only  trouble  is  that  so 
few  appreciate  you.  But  your  case  is  exceptional,  and  men  as  a 
rule  arc  not  so  broad  in  their  outlook,  or  so  equitable  in  their 
opinions." 

Mr.   Notion  laughed  heartily  at  this  little  sally,  and   replied: 


ABUSE  OP   PROCREATIVK   FUNCTIONS.  53 

"You  are  making  fun  of  me  again,  and  indulging  in  sarcasm  at 
my  expense.  But  when  you  become  satirical,  you  cease  to  be 
logical  or  reasonable." 

' '  Do  I  ?  Well,  let  me  put  a  case  to  you,  and  see  how  fair  you 
are  where  sex  questions  are  involved.  Is  it  ever  right  for  a 
woman  to  permit  maternity  to  be  forced  upon  her  by  a  brutal 
husband?  Is  there  a  single  moral  obligation  which  requires  her 
to  bring  a  child  into  the  world  which  has  been  begotten,  not  only 
without  her  consent,  but  expressly  against  her  will?  " 

"  In  the  first  place,  Matilda,  a  woman  should  not  marry  that 
kind  of  a  man,  and — 

"  Stop  right  there,  Ned.  You  are  begging  my  question,  and 
you  know  it. ' ' 

' '  Please  let  me  proceed,  my  dear,  and  I  will  reach  the  point. 
You  know  my  views  relative  to  the  exceptional  cases  in  which 
spouses  are  justified  in  avoiding  the  assumption  of  parentage. 
Where  those  conditions  exist,  and  the  husband  so  far  forgets  his 
manhood  as  to  use  force,  I  think  the  wife  is  warranted  in  employ- 
ing every  legitimate  means  to  avoid  conception ;  but,  if  she  fails 
in  preventing  it,  she  should  accept  the  consequences,  and  has  no 
right  to  produce  an  abortion." 

' '  There  I  differ  radically  from  you,  Mr.  Notion.  Under  such 
circumstances,  I  believe  the  wife  has  a  perfect  right  to  go  to  any 
extreme  to  undo  the  diabolical  work  of  the  monster  whom  the 
law  calls  her  husband.  No  woman  should  ever  have  motherhood 
forced  upon  her.  But  I  want  to  ask  you  one  more  question: 
Suppose  the  conditions  were  such  as  in  your  opinion  would  not 
justify  the  spouses  in  trying  to  avoid  conception,  and  that  the 
wife  were  clearly  wrong  in  refusing  to  risk  maternity.  Now, 
under  these  circumstances,  suppose  the  husband  used  force,  what 
say  you  as  to  the  rights  of  the  wife  in  the  premises  ? ' ' 

"I  should  say,  Matilda,  that  it  would  be  not  only  her  right 
but  her  duty  to  make  every  proper  effort  to  avoid  conception,  for 
the  child  thus  brought  into  being,  would  be  ill  born,  indeed,  and 
in  its  interest  extreme  measures  would  be  justified.  Among  these, 
however,  I  do  not  include  abortion,  for  that  is  nothing  less  than 
murder." 

"  All  right,  Ned.  I  have  your  ideas  in  the  matter,  and,  while 
you  do  not  go  far  enough,  still  you  go  farther  than  I  expected 
you  would.  But,  to  change  the  subject,  have  you  noticed  how 
anxious  little  Edith  is  to  have  a  baby  sister?  " 


54  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

"Of  course  I  have;  but  I  have  also  noticed  that  Tom  and 
Henry  object  strenuously  to  her  wishes  in  the  matter,  and  declare 
with  emphasis  that  we  have  enough  children  now." 

"  That  was  just  what  I  was  coming  to  when  I  spoke  of  Edith's 
whim  about  a  baby  sister. ' ' 

' '  Well,  dear,  this  is  a  sign  of  the  times.  The  average  Amer- 
ican family  would  rather  have  a  funeral  than  a  birth.  Public 
opinion  is  so  strongly  set  against  large  families  that  the  prejudice 
is  in  the  very  air,  and  our  children  absorb  it.  Who  ever  heard 
in  the  good,  old  times  of  brats  of  boys  like  Tom  and  Henry 
taking  it  upon  themselves  to  say  that  their  parents  had  enough 
children?" 

"Oh,  it  is  the  same  with  the  girls!"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Notion. 
"Mi's.  Manychild  tells  me  that  her  eldest  girls,  who  are  now  of 
the  respective  ages  of  sixteen  and  seventeen,  inform  her  that  nine 
children  are  too  many,  and  that  they  do  hope  she  will  not  have 
any  more." 

"It  is  easy  to  see,  Matilda,  what  kind  of  a  married  life  they 
are  preparing  for.  But  how  blind  people  are  to  the  truth!  I 
have  long  believed  that  each  child  sent  into  a  well-ordered  family 
has  its  mission  and  purpose,  and  is  intended  to  accomplish  some 
definite  object,  not  only  in  the  world  at  large,  but  in  the  family 
itself.  The  variety  of  disposition  and  character,  the  different 
degrees  of  health  and  strength,  and  the  manifold  types  of  form 
and  feature,  which  are  seen  to  exist  in  most  large  families,  are 
only  so  many  parts  of  a  general  plan,  which  makes  the  household 
what  it  is,  and  shapes  its  future  destiny.  Besides,  the  welcome 
child,  other  things  being  equal,  is  always  superior  to  the  unwel- 
come one.  Most  of  the  great  men  of  the  Bible, — Isaac,  Jacob, 
Joseph,  and  Samuel,  and  many  others, — were  not  only  welcome, 
but  were  born  in  answer  to  prayer." 

"Why,  Ned,  I  am  deeply  interested!  These  are  entirely  new 
thoughts  to  me. ' ' 

"I  shall  be  very  glad  to  unfold  them  at  some  other  time,  my 
dear,  but  it  is  just  a  little  out  of  the  line  of  our  present  discussion, 
and  I  am  getting  sleepy.  Before  I  forget  it,  however,  let  me 
say  that  immorality,  crime,  and  indecency  are  on  the  increase  in 
this  land  of  ours;  that  the  sins  of  Sodom  are  comintr  like  a  plague 
upon  us,  simply  because  as  a  people  \ve  do  not  permit  our  normal 
sexual  appetites  to  flow  in  their  natural  and  legitimate  eliannels; 
and  that  polygamy,  adultery,  divorce,  infanticide,  and  promis- 


ABUSE   OP   PROCREATIVE   FUNCTIONS.  55 

cuity  of  the  sexes  are  thoroughly  established  in  our  midst,  and 
too  strongly  intrenched  to  fear  serious  opposition.  The  traffic  in 
little  girls,  the  disgusting  disclosures  of  divorce  courts,  the  polluted 
press,  the  indecent  posters  which  occupy  the  most  conspicuous 
sign-boards,  the  prevalence  of  prostitution,  the  teeming  immoral- 
ities of  lodging-houses,  boarding-houses,  and  hotels,  and  the 
unnatural  and  loathsome  vices  which  were  buried  in  Sodom  and 
( roinorruli,  and  resurrected  in  Pompeii  and  Herculaneum — all 
point  to  the  fact  that  Satanic  influences  are  rampant,  and  that 
society  is  in  danger  of  rotting  to  its  core. ' ' 


Mr.  and  Mrs.  Notion  Discuss  the  Psychic  and 

Physiological  Differences  between 

the  Sexes. 


"O  woman!  lovely  woman!     Nature  made  thee 
To  temper  man;  we  had  been  brutes  without  you. 
Angels  are  painted  fair  to  look  like  you; 
There's  in  you  all  that  we  believe  of  heaven, 
Amazing  brightness,  purity,  and  truth, 
Eternal  joy,  and  everlasting  love." 

— Otway. 


' '  We  have  talked  a  good  deal  about  various  phases  of  the  sex 
question,"  remarked  Mr.  Notion  one  evening;  "and  now  I 
desire  to  say  something  in  reference  to  the  psychic  and  physio- 
logical peculiarities  which  differentiate  men  and  women.  These 
differences  are  innumerable,  but  I  shall  not  go  into  details. 
Woman's  stature  is  smaller  than  man's,  and  her  brain  is  quite 
differently  constituted.  Comparatively  speaking,  it  is  more 
ample  in  the  posterior  region,  and  less  developed  in  the  anterior 
than  that  of  her  male  companion.  This  would  seem  to  indicate 
that  her  intellectual  faculties  were  more  circumscribed,  and  her 
affectional  nature  stronger,  than  those  of  her  humble  servant  and 
ardent  admirer,  man." 

"I  rejoice,  Edward,  to  hear  you  acknowledge  that  we  are 
capable  of  real  love.  But  I  see  the  drift  of  your  remarks,  and 
ere  your  comparison  is  finished,  I  shall  be  surprised  if  you  leave 
woman  either  reason,  strength,  or  ability  to  manage  her  own 
affairs." 

1 '  You  are  suspicious,  Matilda.  That  is  one  of  the  most  marked 
traits  of  your  sex,  although,  I  regret  to  say,  it  manifests  itself 
more  violently  when  you  are  surrounded  by  friends  and  well- 
wishers  than  when  real  peril  and  deadly  enemies  are  near.  But, 
after  all,  you  quite  correctly  anticipate  my  conclusion.  Nature 
has  unmistakably  indicated  the  course  which  woman  should 

(56) 


SEX    DIFFERENCES.  57 

follow.  Her  anatomical  structure,  her  instincts,  and  her  deepest 
tendencies,  all  point  in  the  direction  Avhich  her  life  should  take. 
Her  own  constitution  eloquently  proclaims  the  truth  that  she  is 
not  fitted  to  endure  physical  hardship,  or  to  meet  and  conquer 
material  obstacles.  She  has  been  placed  on  this  planet  in  obvi- 
ous physical  subordination  to  man.  He  is  her  keeper  and 
guardian,  and  she  has  no  alternative  but  to  accept  what  lie  cares 
to  bestow." 

"I  deny  every  word  of  it,  sir.  While  we  are  smaller  physi- 
cally than  men,  we  are  in  no  whit  their  inferiors  in  any  way. 
The  fact  is  that  we  have  done  most  of  the  hard  manual  labor  of 
the  world  through  all  the  long  centuries  of  male  oppression, 
cruelty,  and  wrong,  and  it  is  only  lately  that  you  men  have 
deigned  to  harden  your  hands  with  honest  toil.  And  yet  you  say 
that  we  can  not  endure  physical  hardship,  or  conquer  material 
obstacles.  Fortunately,  I  am  prepared  to  show  that  this  is  false. 
I  have  just  finished  reading  a  book  called  'Woman's  Share  in 
Primitive  Culture,'  of  which  Otis  T.  Mason,  curator  of  the 
department  of  Ethnology  in  the  National  Museum,  is  the 
author. ' ' 

' '  The  name  would  indicate  that  the  author  is  a  man.  Am  I 
right  in  the  supposition  V  "  archly  asked  Mr.  Notion. 

"  Of  course  he  is  a  man.  You  don't  suppose  a  woman  could 
be  appointed  to  such  a  position,  do  you?  But  please  don't 
interrupt  me  with  your  attempts  at  sarcasm.  Mr.  Mason,  whose 
fairness,  honesty,  and  industry  all  show  that  he  resembles  his 
mother  rather  than  his  father,  proves  conclusively  that  primitive 
women  cultivated  the  field,  transported  the  harvest,  as  well  as  the 
game  which  was  killed  by  the  men,  prepared,  cooked,  and  served 
the  food,  manufactured  all  utensils  and  clothing,  invented  mills 
and  mortars,  extracted  poison  from  plants,  invented  nearly  all 
the  processes  of  tanning,  and  developed  all  the  forms,  technique, 
and  uses  of  pottery. ' ' 

"She  may  have  been  compelled  by  her  savage  master  to  do 
rough  work,"  interrupted  Mr.  Notion,  "  but  that  does  not  prove 
by  any  means  that  she  was  naturally  fitted  for  it. ' ' 

"Please  permit  me  to  go  on,  sir,"  replied  his  wife  with  some- 
what of  ascerbity.  "Woman  during  the  ages  has  done  all  kinds 
of  work,  and  the  same  individual  has  been  skilled  in  a  multitude 
of  occupations  and  arts.  Mason  says  that  art,  modern  and  classic, 
is  indebted  to  women  for  the  beginnings  of  landscape  gardening, 


58  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

including  the  aviary  and  the  zoological  garden,  for  poetry  and 
music  associated  with  the  home  and  its  surroundings,  for  the  cone 
and  the  dome  in  buildings,  for  the  whole  plastic  art  in  ceramics 
and  sculpture,  for  all  geometric  ornament  of  every  sort  whatso- 
ever, for  textiles,  tapestries,  embroideries,  and  laces,  and  largely 
for  free-hand  drawing  and  painting;  and  that  women  have  done 
much  to  invent  and  conserve  language,  to  institute  marriage,  and 
to  encourage  temperance." 

"I  am  delighted  to  hear,"  said  Mr.  Notion,  "that  women 
have  done  so  much  good  work  in  the  past,  and  sincerely  hope 
that  they  willcontinue  their  well-doing  in  the  future.  I  believe 
that  ancient  women  had  much  to  do  with  the  institution  of  matri- 
mony; and  yet,  sad  to  say,  their  successors  in  America  are  doing 
more  than  the  men  to  destroy  the  marriage  tie.  Between  the 
years  1867  and  1886,  328, 716  divorces  were  granted  in  the  courts 
of  this  country,  and  216,733,  or  nearly  two-thirds  of  the  whole 
number,  were  asked  and  obtained  by  wives." 

"  That  only  goes  to  show,  Edward,  that  the  women  were  worse 
treated  than  the  men." 

"Possibly  so,  Matilda;  and  yet  it  must  be  admitted  that 
many  of  the  divorced  women  of  this  country  have  acquired  a 
very  bad  reputation  on  the  score  of  morality.  But  we  are 
wandering  from  the  subject.  I  was  going  much  farther  with  my 
comparison  when  you  became  indignant  and  interrupted  me.  In 
women  the  cellular  tissue,  which  tills  out  the  skin,  and  effaces 
the  bony  protuberances,  is  much  more  abundant  than  in  man. 
Tins  it  is  which  gives  her  form  its  graceful  outh'nes  and  soft 
symmetry,  and,  serving  as  a  lubricant  for  the  different  organs, 
makes  her  movements  supple  and  harmonious.  This  cellular 
tissue,  however,  is  considered  by  physiologists  as  the  elementary 
substance  of  living  organisms,  and  its  relatively  larger  propor- 
tion in  woman  would  indicate  that  it  was  intended  for  her 
offspring." 

' '  I  suppose  you  are  leading  up  to  the  idea,  Mr.  Notion,  that 
women  are  chiefly  constituted  to  bear  children,  and  that  that  is 
about  all  they  are  good  for,  anyway." 

"No,  Matilda,  I  do  not  go  to  such  an  extreme;  but  woman's 
structure  shows  that  to  her  is  assigned  in  a  much  greater  degree 
than  to  man,  the  production,  nurture  and  care  of  the  young." 

"How  easy  it  is  for  you  men  to  reach  a  conclusion  which 
favors  your  selfishness  and  love  of  ease!  " 


SEX    DIFFERENCES.  59 

"There  you  are  mistaken,  my  dear.  If  woman's  sphere  is 
what  I  have  suggested,  upon  man  must  fall  the  labor  and  respon- 
sibility of  maintaining  the  family,  and  providing  for  all  the 
material  wants  of  the  household.  This  involves  ceaseless  toil. 
But  I  wish  to  continue  my  comparison  of  the  two  sexes. 
Woman's  nervous  system  is  more  highly  organized,  closely  con- 
nected in  all  its  parts,  and  intimately  related  to  the  reproductive 
region  than  that  of  man.  With  her,  sensation  is  much  more 
potent  than  with  him,  and  all  her  parts  are  more  sympathetic. 
Her  skin  possesses  the  quality  of  reproducing  at  every  part  that 
which  is  felt  at  a  single  point.  She  attains  puberty  sooner  than 
man,  and  the  substance  of  her  brain  is  less  dense  and  consistent." 

"  Well,  sir,  what  follows  from  all  this?  " 

' '  The  answer  is  plain,  Matilda.  Woman  is  less  reflective  and 
more  sensitive  than  man.  In  the  words  of  Rousseau,  '  Woman 
has  more  wit,  and  man  more  genius;  woman  observes,  and  man 
reasons.'  Among  women  there  is  less  variety  of  temperament 
than  among  men.  A  thorough  knowledge  of  an  average  woman 
will  prove  a  truer  index  to  the  nature  of  every  other  member  of 
her  sex  than  will  a  corresponding  familiarity  with  an  average 
man." 

"  How  absurd  all  this  is,  Edward!  I  have  always  been  under 
the  impression  that  women  differed  from  each  other  in  a  greater 
variety  of  particulars  than  do  men." 

"That  is  quite  true,  my  dear,  but  I  refer  to  the  temperament. 
In  their  underlying  motives,  and  manner  of  looking  at  things, 
women  are  much  more  alike  than  men.  And  yet  this  is  perfectly 
consistent  with  the  fact  that  there  are  more  superficial  differences 
in  the  members  of  your  sex  than  in  those  of  mine.  A  recent 
writer  says:  'As  the  feminine  nature  is  exceedingly  impression- 
able, there  are  observed  a  host  of  superficial  differences  arising 
from  education,  manners,  and  customs,  and  from  all  the  general 
causes  which  affect  the  secondary  qualities  of  beings.'  The  same 
author  remarks  that  'the  temperament  of  woman  exposes  her  to 
the  most  singular  inconveniences  and  inconsistencies.  Extreme 
in  good,  she  is  also  extreme  in  evil.  She  is  inconstant  and 
changeable;  she  "will"  and  she  "won't."  She  is  easily  dis- 
gusted with  that  which  she  has  pursued  with  the  greatest  ardor. 
She  passes  from  love  to  hate  with  prodigious  facility.  She  is  full 
of  contradictions  and  mysteries.  Capable  of  the  most  heroic 
actions,  r-he  does  not  shrink  from  the  most  atrocious  crimes.'  ' 


60  DOMESTIC  nru.s. 

"You  needn't  read  any  more  of  that  kind  of  trash,  Mr. 
Notion,  with  any  expectation  of  my  sitting  here  and  listening  to 
it.  What  I  wish  to  know  now  is,  whether  you  indorse  all  the 
opinions  of  the  author  whom  you  quote;  whether  you  deem  us 
all  criminals,  etc." 

"Of  course  I  don't,"  replied  Mr.  Notion,  in  his  most  sooth- 
ing and  mellifluous  tones.  "  While  in  some  respects  I  heartily 
concur  in  his  sentiments,  in  others  I  difler  radically  from  him, 
and  1  deem  him  very  unjust  when  he  characterizes  your  sex  as 
being  capable  of  the  most  atrocious  crimes.  He  says  that  'jeal- 
ousy can  transform  this  angel  of  peace  to  a  veritable  fury.  She 
poisons  her  rival  as  readily  as  she  would  sacrifice  her  life  for  him 
she  loves.'  Of  course  this  is  absurd.  The  average  woman  is 
neither  an  angel  nor  a  fury.  She  would  never  think  of  poison- 
ing her  rival,  nor  would  she  be  willing  to  sacrifice  her  life  for  the 
man  she  loved." 

' '  In  that  regard,  Ned,  I  agree  with  the  author.  The  true 
woman  is  willing  to  make  any  sacrifice,  compatible  with  virtue, 
for  the  object  of  her  affection." 

"The  fact  is,  Matilda,  that  you  are  willing  to  credit  your  sex 
with  all  the  good  qualities  of  its  most  heroic  and  distinguished 
members,  but  you  instantly  demur  when  any  one  luus  the  temerity 
to  charge  it  with  the  vices  of  the  female  monsters  whose  foul 
deeds  have  stained  the  pages  of  history.  You  should  be  more 
consistent,  but  consistency  is  not  a  female  virtue,  and  I  am 
unreasonable  to  expect  it  in  even  you." 

"There  you  are  very  much  mistaken,  sir.  I  claim  no  more 
for  my  sex  than  many  fair-minded  men  are  glad  to  concede,  for, 
fortunately,  all  men  are  not  so  prejudiced  against  their  mothers, 
wives;  and  sisters  as  you  seem  to  be.  I  don't  suppose  you  have 
ever  read  that  delightful  little  work  of  Malcolm  G.  Salaman's, 
called  'Woman  through  a  Man's  Eyeglasses.'  I  heartily  com- 
mend it  to  you,  for  its  author  enters  more  deeply  into  the  inner 
life  and  character  of  women,  than  any  other  man  with  whose 
views  on  the  subject  1  am  familiar.  For  instance,  he  says  in 
one  place:  'It  has  been  the  fashion  in  all  ages  to  decry  women, 
to  call  them  false  and  fickle,  to  say  that  their  business  is  to 
deceive,  that  their  spell  is  that  of  the  serpent,  that  they  are  vain 
and  shallow  and  cruel.  Poets  have  railed  against  them  in  plaus- 
ible verse;  philosophers  have  said  bitter  things  about  them ;  and 
many  a  wit  has  gained  his  reputation  at  the  expense  of  woman's 


SEX    DIFFERENCES.  01 

fame;  all  of  which  is  us  wickedly  foolish  as  to  say  that  human 
nature  is  uniformly  infamous.  You  will  not  find  that  the  great 
writers,  who  live  in  the  hearts  of  mankind,  ever  stultified  or 
debased  their  genius  by  defaming  woman.  But,  on  the  contrary, 
they  have  created  for  us  immortal  types  of  pure  and  lovely 
womanhood.  It  is  the  cheapest  cynicism  to  discredit  a  whole 
sex ;  and  inysogyny  and  misanthropy  are  merely  the  affectations 
of  vain  and  egotistical  minds.  When  I  hear  a  man  say  he  does 
not  believe  in  woman's  constancy,  or  woman's  virtue,  I  know 
that  there  is  something  wrong  with  that  man;  he  is  either  a 
libertine  or  a  bully,  and  no  woman  will  ever  respect  him,  how- 
ever much  he  may  ensnare  her  senses. '  ' 

"I  don't  see  anything  in  what  you  have  just  read,  Matilda, 
which  militates  in  any  degree  against  my  opinions.  I  certainly 
am  not  among  the  number  of  men  who  indulge  in  wholesale 
tirades  against  womankind  generally.  On  the  contrary,  I  defy 
any  man  to  go  beyond  me  in  my  love  and  admiration  for  the 
good  women  of  all  ages  and  climes." 

"I  accept  your  apology,  Edward.  And  now  I  wish  to  quote 
a  little  further  from  Mr.  Salaman,  for  he  has  a  marvelous  insight 
into  woman's  real  nature.  Listen  to  this  subtle  delineation  of 
female  character:  '  For  instance,  a  man  kisses  the  woman  he 
loves,  and  she  responds  to  his  caress.  He  believes  it  is  in  the  same 
passionate  spirit,  but,  really,  the  impulse  is  subtly  different.  He 
kisses  her  to  satisfy  his  own  yearning;  she  kisses  him  because  she 
knows  it  will  make  him  happy,  and  to  make  him  happy  is  the 
active  spirit  of  her  love.  And  it  is  just  the  failure  of  man  to 
distinguish  and  accept  this  beautiful  spirituality  in  woman's 
relations  with  him,  which  necessitates  that  protective  dissimulation 
which  becomes  her  second  nature.  For  example,  here  the  woman 
must  simulate  the  passion  of  her  lover,  for  he  would  not  be  satis- 
fied with  the  delicate  impulse  of  her  responsive  caress;  so  he  is 
permitted  to  believe  that  she  feels  as  he  does,  reasoning  only  from 
his  own  emotions,  while  she  instinctively  knows  that  their  feelings 
are  running  in  different  channels,  though  they  meet  in  the  broad 
ocean  of  love. '  ' 

"Is  Salaman  correct  in  that  statement ?"  inquired  Mr.  Notion. 

"  Why,  of  course  he  is,  Edward,  and  if  you  were  not  very 
stupid  you  would  have  found  it  out  yourself  twenty  years  ago. 
But  let  me  quote  from  him  just  once  more:  '  After  marriage  the 
wife,  happy  in  the  possession  of  the  husband  she  loves,  believes 


<i2  DOMESTIC  i>ri:i- 

that  all  is  mutual  trust,  and  she  ceases  to  practise  that  beautiful, 
innocent  dissimulation  by  which  she  held  him  as  a  lover.  Then 
he  begins  to  misunderstand,  and  her  love  seems  not  the  same  to 
him,  though  it  has  been  unchanged  all  the  while;  so  his  love 
grows  colder,  and  he  becomes  consequently  dissatisfied  and  irrita- 
ble; and  with  this  rift  within  the  lute,  the  music  of  matrimony 
sounds  out  of  tune,  and  grates  upon  their  ears,  and  the  lovers 
drift  into  mere  husband  and  housewife — lovers  no  more. ' ' 

' '  I  am  happy  to  say,  Matilda,  that  that  has  not  been  our  expe- 
rience. ' ' 

Mrs.  Notion  smiled  a  peculiar  smile,  and  without  replying  to 
her  husband's  words,  abruptly  changed  the  drift  of  the  conversa- 
tion again,  and  said:  "It  is  you  men  who  are  inconsistent  and 
changeable.  Take  yourself,  for  instance.  Once  you  were  a 
skeptic,  and  prided  yourself  upon  your  infidelity.  Now  you  are 
a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  none  more  orthodox 
than  you.  Once  you  were  a  Republican,  then  you  became  a 
member  of  the  Prohibition  party,  and  now  you  are  .a  Single 
Taxer  without  a  party.  I  could  name  at  least  a  dozen,  subjects 
upon  which  you  have  not  only  changed  your  opinions,  but  taken 
at  different  times  views  which  were  diametrically  opposite.  For 
instance,  you  began  life  as  a  believer  in  the  old  school  of  medi- 
cine; then  you  advocated  Homeopathy,  and  now  you  are  an 
Eclectic." 

"Ah,  my  dear,  that  only  goes  to  show  that  I  am  progressive! 
But  these  things  are  the  results  of  gradual  growth,  and  are  not  the 
capricious  vacillations  of  a  week  or  a  day." 

"Fie,  fie,  Ned!  Be  candid,  now,  and  admit  that  what  you 
stigmatize  as  inconsistency  in  women,  you  glorify  as  progressive- 
ness  in  men." 

"  Not  at  all,  Matilda.  The  distinction  is  quite  obvious  to  those 
who  care  to  see  it.  The  changes  on  my  part  are  those  of  opinion, 
and  are  the  logical  and  inevitable  consequence  of  growth  in 
knowledge,  and  greater  maturity  of  the  intellectual  powers.  On 
the  contrary,  women  arc  less  likely  to  change  their  opinions,  than 
men,  for  the  simple  reason  that  their  opinions  are  not  founded  on 
impassionate  investigation,  but  are  rather  built  on  feeling  and 
prejudice.  It  follows  that  so  long  as  the  feelings  and  prejudices 
remain,  the  corresponding  opinions  also  continue.  The  incon- 
sistency of  your  sex  is  rather  that  of  fact  than  of  opinion,  and 
involves  what  you  are  more  than  what  you  think,  your  feelings 


SKX    DIFFERENCES.  63 

more  than  your  judgments.  You  are  made  up  of  a  set  of  con- 
traries, and  are  by  turns  gentle  and  arrogant,  timid  and  coura- 
geous, vacillating  and  obstinate,  self-sacrificing  and  selfish,  ami- 
able and  irritable,  truthful  and  unreliable,  patient  and  petulant." 

' '  All  of  which,  Ned,  is  the  merest  twaddle.  I  have  read  and 
listened  to  it  over  and  over  again,  and  am  surprised  that  a  man 
of  your  sagacity  should  beKeve  in  anything  so  silly.  The  fact  is 
that  women  are  no  more  inconsistent,  self-contradictory,  and 
capricious  than  men. ' ' 

' '  The  opinion  I  have  expressed,  Matilda,  is  not  borrowed 
from  others,  but  is  the  result  of  much  observation  and  reflection. 
However,  there  is  room  for  difference  of  opinion  upon  that  as 
upon  almost  every  other  subject,  and,  without  reiterating  my  views, 
I  shall  proceed  to  state  some  of  what  may  be  called  the  psychic 
differences  between  the  sexes.  Women  are  much  more  impres- 
sionable than  men.  Great  popular  excitements  or  sensations,  like 
that  of  the  Durrant  case,  spread  among  women  like  some  con- 
tagious disease  or  frightful  epidemic.  You  know,  without  going 
beyond  the  circle  of  your  own  acquaintances,  how  injuriously  it 
affected  many  of  your  sex.  Men  charged  with  horrible  crimes 
seem  to  have  some  mysterious  fascination  for  women  of  a  certain 
temperament,  and  Durrant  was  daily  the  recipient  of  bouquets 
from  his  lady  admirers.  Young  girls  persisted  in  visiting  him  at 
his  cell,  and  some  of  them  would  have  taken  up  their  lodgings 
there  if  the  authorities  had  permitted.  The  crowd  which  during 
his  trial  filled  the  approaches  to  the  court-room  was  composed 
chiefly  of  women,  and  at  least  four-fifths  of  those  who  had  sufficient 
influence  to  secure  admission  to  the  place  of  trial,  and  who  sat  as 
eagerly  attentive  listeners  during  all  the  long  weeks  that  the 
proceedings  lasted,  were  members  of  your  sex. ' ' 

"  This  is  too  much,  Mr.  Notion.  Am  I  to  be  held  responsible 
for  the  vagaries  of  silly  women,  who  are  really  a  disgrace  to  their 
sex?  You  know  that  I  studiously  refrained  from  reading  the 
long  reports  of  the  Durrant  case,  and  that  I  took  no  more  interest 
in  it  than  you  did.  In  fact,  you  were  much  more  absorbed  in 
the  circumstances  of  these  revolting  crimes  than  I  was,  and  I  beg 
to  remind  you  that  it  was  you  and  not  I  that  paid  a  visit  to  the 
court- room  on  one  occasion  while  the  trial  was  in  progress. ' ' 

"That  is  all  true,"  rejoined  Mr.  Notion,  "but  you  are  not 
attempting  to  meet  my  point.  I  acknowledge  that  you  were  not 
among  the  numerous  women  who  were  demoralized  by  the  great 


64  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

crimes  referred  to,  and  that  I  did  drop  into  Judge  Murphy's 
court- room  one  morning  in  company  with  a  country  friend  and 
his  wife,  who  were  very  anxious  to  witness  the  proceedings.  But 
those  things  are  irrelevant  to  the  question  at  issue,  which  is  the 
peculiar  susceptibility  of  women  to  popular  excitements,  supersti- 
tious, and  political  fanaticism.  That  country  friend's  wife, 
though  an  old  lady  whom  I  had  always  considered  as  remarkably 
sensible  and  well  balanced  mentally,  was  so  full  of  the  Durrant 
case  that  she  preferred  it  to  all  other  topics  of  conversation,  and 
when  after  much  trouble  I  succeeded  in  procuring  her  a  good  seat 
in  the  court-room,  she  looked  as  happy  as  though  she  had  suddenly 
inherited  a  large  estate.  Why,  I  know  of  girls  whose  nerves  have 
been  so  shattered  by  the  so-called  crime  of  a  century,  that  they 
are  afraid  to  sleep  alone,  and  who  awake  in  terror  at  the  slightest 
sound.  Others  fear  to  go  out  even  for  a  few  moments  after  dark, 
without  at  least  one  robust  male  escort.  Others  have  become 
insane  over  the  case,  and  others — 

"Stop  right  there,  Mr.  Notion,  until  I  remind  you  that  the 
first  person  to  go  crazy  over  the  Durrant  matter  was  a  young 
man.  He  brooded  over  the  newspaper  accounts  of  the  crimes 
until  his  mind  gave  way,  and  the  poor  fellow  committed  suicide. ' ' 

"Oh,  that  was  an  isolated  case,  and  no  importance  should  be 
attached  to  it!  But  you  never  heard  of  men  leaving  their  wives 
so  that  they  could  devote  all  their  time  to  the  trial  of  Durrant' s 
case." 

"Perhaps  that  is  to  be  accounted  for,"  archly  suggested  Mrs. 
Notion,  "by  the  fact  that  Durrant  was  a  man." 

"  No,  Matilda,  that  has  nothing  to  do  with  it.  If  he  had  been 
a  female  criminal  instead  of  a  male  monster,  men  would  not  for 
that  reason  have  been  attracted  to  him.  I  will  admit  that  the  wide- 
spread injury  to  the  community  which  has  undoubtedly  resulted 
from  these  awful  crimes,  is  not  entirely  confined  to  your  sex.  Boys 
as  well  as  girls  have  been  deteriorated  in  their  mental  and  moral 
fiber  by  the  published  details,  and  a  lew  weak-minded  men  have 
doubtless  been  more  or  less  affected;  but  women  have  been  the 
chief  sufferers,  and  many  of  them  will  never  recover  the  mental 
equipoise  which  they  enjoyed  before  these  tragic  events  took 
place." 

"Well,  suppose  you  are  right,  and  women  are  more  impres- 
sionable than  men — a  supposition  which  I  deny  with  emphasis — 
what  conclusion  do  you  draw  from  it?"  inquired  Mrs.  Notion. 


SEX    DIFFERENCES.  65 

"Be  patient,  Matilda,  and  restrain  your  curiosity  for  just  a 
little  while,"  answered  Mr.  Notion  smilingly.  "I  will  draw 
several  conclusions  from  my  premises,  but  before  doing  so,  I 
wish  to  state  the  premises  more  fully.  Women  are  more  supei- 
stitious  than  men.  They  believe  in  unlucky  days  and  numbers, 
and  are  averse  to  beginning  a  journey  on  Fridays,  or  being  one 
of  a  dinner  party  of  thirteen.  Many  intelligent  and  estimable 
ladies  attach  significance  to  their  dreams,  and  cause  themselves 
and  those  who  are  foolish  enough  to  agree  with  them,  a  great 
deal  of  unnecessary  uuhappiness,  by  perpetual  forebodings  of 
disasters,  which,  though  indicated  by  their  dreams,  rarely  occur." 

"Why,  don't  you  believe  in  any  dreams,  Ned  ?  " 

' '  I  certainly  do  not,  Matilda.  I  deny  them  any  value  except 
as  an  index  of  the  mental  and  bodily  condition  of  the  dreamer. ' ' 

"  But  Mrs.  Poorsleeper's  dreams  often  come  true.  When  she 
dreams  of  flowers,  it  means  sickness  or  death,  and  washing  means 
moving.  She  says  that  just  before  they  moved  last  time,  she 
dreamed  of  a  big  wash ;  and  that  a  week  before  little  Allen  took 
sick  and  died,  she  saw  him  in  her  sleep  just  covered  with 
flowers. ' ' 

' '  Of  course  when  a  person  is  always  prophesying  trouble,  such 
predictions  must  sometimes  be  fulfilled;  but  I  will  warrant  that 
Mrs.  Poorsleeper  has  dreamed  a  hundred  times  of  washing,  with- 
out any  moving  coming  to  pass,  and  that  she  has  had  a  thousand 
visions  of  flowers  for  every  case  of  sickness  or  death  in  her 
family." 

"Well,  I  must  admit,  Ned,  that  my  dreams  don't  mean  any- 
thing." 

' '  I  am  glad  of  it,  Matilda,  for  I  have  noticed  that  these 
dreamers  usually  predict  trouble  and  sorrow.  But,  while  you  are 
free  from  most  of  the  superstitions  of  your  sex,  you  are  not 
entirely  beyond  their  influence.  For  instance,  you  derive  much 
satisfaction  from  the  fact  that  your  wedding  ring  has  never 
slipped  from  your  finger;  you  do  not  like  to  take  a  knife  from 
me,  or  hand  one  to  me,  and  you  are  extremely  averse  to  having 
any  one  pass  between  us  when  we  are  out  walking." 

Mrs.  Notion  laughed,  and  replied:  "Oh,  those  are  more 
habits  than  anything  else!  I  don't  believe  much  in  such  things  ; 
but  I  can  not  permit  your  assertion  that  women  are  more  super- 
stitious than  men  to  go  unchallenged.  Whole  classes  of  men  are 
given  up  to  the  most  senseless  superstitions.  Sailors  are  prover- 

5 


66  DOMESTIC   DUKLS. 

bially  credulous  iu  this  regai'd,  aud  are  convinced  that  certain 
ships  are  ill-omened  or  haunted,  and  that  Friday  is  an  unlucky 
day  to  begin  a  voyage.  The  ship-owners,  instead  of  resisting 
and  trying  to  overcome  this  absurd  belief,  evidently  participate 
in  it  themselves  to  a  great  extent,  for  in  the  majority  of  cases 
they  decline  to  start  their  vessels  on  the  sixth  day  of  the  week. 
Even  the  judges,  men  of  unusual  wisdom,  who  have  been  placed 
upon  the  judicial  bench  because  of  their  sound  judgment  and 
learning  in  the  law,  recognize  this  ancient  superstition,  and  with 
few  exceptions,  sentence  murderers  to  suffer  the  death  penalty  on 
Friday.  The  governor  of  one  of  the  principal  states  made  a 
personal  appeal  a  few  years  ago  to  the  judiciary  to  select  other 
days  for  the  infliction  of  capital  punishment,  and  for  a  time  his 
request  was  heeded,  but  the  judges  gradually  relapsed  into  their 
superstitious  habit  of  choosing  Friday  as  the  exclusive  day  for 
the  execution  of  criminals." 

' '  Matilda,  you  put  your  side  of  the  case  with  much  ingenuity, 
but,  after  all,  the  instances  which  you  cite  are  exceptional.  I 
claim  on  the  other  hand  that  nearly  all  women,  regardless  of 
class,  station,  occupation,  or  nativity,  are  given  up  to  super- 
stitions. You  have  told  me  yourself  that  many  of  the  ladies  of 
your  acquaintance  consult  their  dream-books  every  morning,  in 
order  to  ascertain  the  significance  of  the  fancies  which  disturbed 
their  slumbers." 

' '  Probably,  Ned,  they  were  made  superstitious  by  the  example 
of  their  husbands.  Is  it  men  or  women  that  carry  potatoes  in 
their  pockets  as  a  cure  for  rheumatism,  or  that  seek  to  cure  the 
same  disease  by  putting  their  shoes  beneath  the  bed  with  the  toes 
in  aud  the  back  part  of  the  shoes  projecting  out?  AVhat  is  that 
ring  on  your  finger  for?  Ah,  I  see  you  blush!  That  is  a 
Franco-Prussian  ring,  for  which  you  paid  four  dollars,  and  in 
the  magic  virtues  of  which  you  have  so  firm  a  belief  that  you 
assured  me  only  the  other  day  that  your  rheumatic  twinges  had 
left  you  the  very  day  you  began  to  wear  it. ' ' 

"Do  not  misunderstand  me,  Matilda.  I  do  not  claim  that 
the  ring  possesses  any  supernatural  powers,  but  simply  that  it 
has  natural  properties,  not  yet  thoroughly  understood,  which 
constitute  a  curative  agency  for  rheumatism.  Superstition  I 
would  define  as  being  a  belief  which  is  not  merely  incapable  of 
demonstration,  or  beyond  reason,  but  which  is  absolutely  contrary 
to  all  human  experiences,  good  judgment,  and  common  sense. 


SEX   DIFFERENCES.  67 

To  illustrate:  I  know  a  man  who  had  a  vacant  house  which  was 
numbered  13.  Months  passed  by,  and  it  still  remained  vacant. 
He  investigated  the  matter,  and  found  out  that  the  only  objection 
which  the  womenfolk  made  to  the  house  was  that  it  had  an 
unlucky  number.  He  changed  the  number,  and  in  a  short  time 
his  house  was  rented.  Now,  this  was  a  genuine  case  of  super- 
stition, for  there  could  be  no  possible  connection  between  the 
number  on  the  door  of  the  house,  and  the  prosperity  of  its 
inmates. ' ' 

"That  may  be,"  replied  Mrs.  Notion,  "but  the  practice  of 
nailing  a  horseshoe  above  the  door  of  a  house  to  keep  bad  luck 
away,  is  j  ust  as  superstitious,  and  yet  men  more  than  women  are 
addicted  to  that  practice." 

' '  But  it  is  the  women,  Matilda,  who  dread  to  see  the  moon 
over  their  left  shoulder,  and  attach  also  so  much  importance  to 
white  horses.  You  believe,  too,  that  some  one  is  talking  about 
you  when  there  is  a  ringing  in  your  ears." 

' '  And  then,  see  how  superstitious  the  gamblers  are,  Edward ! 
In  fact,  all  men  who  play  cards  believe  in  luck,  and  think  that 
the  good  cards  are  more  likely  to  go  to  players  on  a  certain  side 
of  the  table  than  any  other.  Now  all  this  I  call  Superstition. 
You  yourself  are  superstitious  about  numbers,  and  remarked 
the  other  day,  when  Tom  met  with  the  second  accident  during 
the  week,  that  you  feared  a  third,  as  you  had  noticed  that  two 
misfoitunes  of  any  kind  were  generally  followed  by  a  third." 

"That  is  not  superstition,  Matilda.  I  had  merely  observed 
that  events  usually  occurred  in  series  or  sequences  of  three,  and 
felt  that  I  was  justified  in  assuming  that  they  would  continue  in 
the  same  order." 

"Well,  I  think  I  have  sufficiently  disproved  your  assertion 
that  women  are  more  superstitious  than  men, ' '  exclaimed  Mrs. 
Notion,  with  a  sudden  divergence  from  the  direction  of  the  con- 
versation, which  ill-natured  critics  might  suggest  was  character- 
istic of  her  sex,  "and  now  I  would  like  to  know  the  origin  of 
the  belief  that  thirteen  is  an  unlucky  number,  and  Friday  an  ill- 
omened  day." 

' '  I  have  never  specially  investigated  the  matter, ' '  replied 
Mr.  Notion,  "but  my  impression  has  always  been  that  these 
superstitions  have  their  origin  in  the  fact  that  the  last  supper  of 
our  Lord  was  partaken  of  by  thirteen,  and  that  he  was  crucified 
on  Friday." 


68  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

' '  You  spoke  some  little  time  since, ' '  said  Mrs.  Notion,  as  she 
gave  the  talk  another  sudden  turn,  "  of  political  fanaticism  as  a 
characteristic  of  women.  There  I  must  dissent  from  your  view. 
I  never  was  half  as  ardent  a  Republican  as  you,  and  I  am  sure 
I  wanted  you  to  vote  the  Prohibition  ticket  long  before  you  could 
bring  yourself  to  the  point  of  doing  so.  And  now  that  you  are 
a  Single  Taxer  and  a  man  without  a  party,  I  am  perfectly  willing 
to  have  you  remain  so. ' ' 

"  Matilda,  in  your  tendency  to  ignore  the  universal  and  culti- 
vate the  particular,  you  are  a  fair  type  of  womankind  generally. 
I  was  not  referring  to  you,  or  to  any  other  individual,  when  I 
spoke  of  political  fanaticism.  Nor  do  I  claim  that  under  ordi- 
nary circumstances,  women  are  any  more  intemperate  in  their 
political  prejudices  and  passions  than  men.  But  in  times  of  wild 
excitement,  and  great  popular  upheavals,  like  the  French  Revo- 
lution, and  our  own  Civil  War,  the  women  are  much  more 
extreme  than  the  men.  The  most  cruel  and  blood-thirsty  of  the 
mobs  which  clamored  for  the  lives  of  the  French  Royalists,  were 
women.  The  most  bitter  and  uncompromising  among  the  rebels 
of  the  south,  were  members  of  your  sex.  This  is  a  topic,  how- 
ever, which  I  do  not  like  to  discuss,  and  with  your  permission,  I 
will  pass  on  to  other  points  of  difference  between  the  sexes. ' ' 

' '  Please  postpone  it  until  to-morrow  evening,  Edward,  as  I 
am  getting  very  sleepy. ' ' 

And  here  this  little  matrimonial  dialogue  closed. 


Mr.  and  Mrs.  Notion  Continue  Their  Discussion 
of  the  Psychic  and  Physiological  Differ- 
ences between  the  Sexes. 

"Woman  may  err,  woman  may  give  her  mind 
To  evil  thoughts,  and  lose  her  pure  estate; 
But  for  one  woman  who  affronts  her  kind 
By  wicked  passions  and  remorseless  hate, 
A  thousand  make  amends  in  age  and  youth 
By  heavenly  pity,  by  sweet  sympathy, 
By  patient  kindness,  hy  enduring  truth, 
By  love,  supremest  in  adversity." 

— Charles  Mackay. 

"You  spoke  in  a  recent  conversation,  Edward,  about  the 
tendency  of  women  to  be  political  fanatics,  and  even  went  so  far 
as  to  charge  them  with  being  cruel  and  bloodthirsty.  You 
referred  to  the  French  Revolution  as  an  illustration  of  the  truth 
of  your  charge.  Permit  me  to  quote  from  a  papor  read  by  Dr. 
Emily  Harriet  StoAve,  of  Canada,  before  the  Women's  Congress 
at  Chicago  in  1893.  She  says:  'Again,  we  find  in  the  history  of 
the  French  Revolution  that  society  seemed  to  be  disorganized. 
When  men  were  intoxicated  with  the  thirst  for  blood,  women 
like  Madame  De  Stael,  Madam  Neckar,  Madam  Tallien,  and 
others,  used  all  their  power  to  reorganize  the  social  system,  opening 
their  salons  in  which  men  were  inspired  to  nobler  efforts,  rescuing 
the  unfortunate  victims  from  the  guillotine,  bringing  with  them 
peace  and  order.'  ' 

"I  had  not  intended  to  speak  more  particularly  upon  this 
disagreeable  phase  of  our  subject,"  replied  Mr.  Notion,  "but,  in 
order  to  show  you  that  I  have  not  exaggerated,  I  shall  support 
my  statements  by  evidence.  Ostrogorski,.in  his  work  on  'The 
Rights  of  Women,'  says:  'The  grotesque  and  somewhat  dismal 
part  played  by  woman  under  the  Terror  only  too  well  justified 
the  language  of  Mirabeau.  Having  flung  themselves  into  the 
Revolution  with  an  ardor  and  an  enthusiasm  not  devoid  of 

(69) 


70  DOMESTIC;  DUIII.S. 

grandeur  at  the  outset,  they  soon  lost  all  balance,  intellectual  and 
moral.  The  Terrorists  themselves  were  disgusted  in  the  end,  if 
not  by  their  excesses,  at  least  by  the  habit  into  which  they  fell, 
of  exciting  the  people,  of  remonstrating  with  the  men  in  office, 
and  of  promoting  disorder  in  the  streets.  Upon  the  defeat  of  the 
Girondins,  the  Moutagnards  were  not  slow  in  getting  rid  of  their 
sinister  allies.  On  the  28th  brunmire,  IT'.).'),  when  a  band  of 
red-capped  viragoes  forced  their  way  into  the  lobby  of  the  Com- 
munal Council  Chamber,  Chaumette,  the  procm-rnr  </t'iu'r<tl, 
apostrophized  them  in  the  severest  terms.  "What!  shall  these 
degraded  beings  who  have  shaken  off  and  violated  Nature's  laws, 
be  suffered  to  enter  a  place  intrusted  to  the  guardianship  of 
citizens?  Since  when  have  women  been  allowed  to  abjure  their 
sex  and  turn  themselves  into  men  ?  "  The  convention  thereupon 
decreed  the  suppression  of  female  clubs  and  societies,  and  subse- 
quently prohibited  any  public  assemblies  of  women.  The  female 
politicians  completely  disappeared.' ' 

"Just  like  the  male  tyrants!"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Notion.  "If 
some  women  went  to  extremes,  and  showed  themselves  so  weak 
and  foolish  as  to  be  unduly  influenced  by  the  bad  example  of 
the  men,  they  certainly  furnished  no  justification  for  such 
extreme  measures  as  the  suppression  and  social  and  political 
serfdom  of  the  entire  sex.  Besides,  they  were  of  the  lowest  orders 
of  society,  and  had  been  degraded  by  centuries  of  poverty, 
misery,  and  oppression.  I  think  it  is  highly  unfair  to  take 
them  as  representatives  in  any  way  of  their  sex.  I  have  shown 
you  that  women  of  the  higher  classes  were  either  the  victims 
of  the  Terror,  or  were  doing  their  utmost  to  ameliorate  its 
anguish,  and  mitigate  its  misery  and  brutality.  In  this  con- 
nection let  me  quote  from  the  celebrated  traveler  Ledyard,  who 
pays  this  deserved  tribute  to  my  sex:  'I  have  observed  that 
women  in  all  countries  are  civil,  obliging,  tender,  and  humane. 
I  never  addressed  myself  to  them  in  the  language  of  decency  and 
friendship,  without  receiving  a  decent  and  friendly  answer. 
With  man,  it  has  often  been  otherwise.  In  wandering  over  the 
barren  plains  of  inhospitable  Denmark;  through  honest  Sweden 
and  frozen  Lapland;  rude  and  churlish  Finland;  unprincipled 
Ilussia;  and  the  widespread  regions  of  the  wandering  Tartar;  if 
hungry,  dry,  cold,  wet,  or  sick,  the  women  have  ever  been 
friendly  to  n >e,  and  uniformly  so;  and  to  add  to  this  virtue  (so 
worthy  the  appellation  of  benevolence),  these  actions  have  been 


SEX    DIFFERENCES.  71 

performed  in  so  free  and  kind  a  manner  that  if  I  was  dry  I 
drank  the  sweetest  draught ;  and  if  hungry,  ate  the  coarsest  morsel 
with  a  double  relish.'  That  would  not  indicate  that  women  were 
so  cruel  as  you  try  to  make  out  by  your  reference  to  their  conduct 
during  the  French  Ilevolution. " 

"  I  do  not  charge  them  with  cruelty,  Matilda.  I  refer  rather 
to  their  impressionability,  and  tendency  to  go  to  all  sorts  of 
extremes  under  the  influence  of  great  popular  excitement." 

"The  French  Revolution,"  replied  Mrs.  Notion,  "  was  some- 
thing so  unique,  so  exceptional,  so  extraordinary  and  peculiar  in 
every  way,  that  its  occurrences  should  not  be  used  to  support  any 
charge  against  either  sex,  or  as  a  basis  for  any  assertion  whatever, 
except  the  possibility  of  barbarous  conduct  by  civilized  humanity 
under  a  combination  of  circumstances  so  rare  that  its  recurrence 
is  exceedingly  improbable." 

"The  fact  remains,  my  dear,  that  women  are  more  easily 
affected  by  their  surroundings  than  men;  that  they  yield  to 
excitement  more  quickly;  that  they  are  more  extreme  in  both 
good  and  evil;  that  they  are  more  creatures  of  instinct  than  of 
intelligence. ' ' 

"Sir,  your  statements  are  absolutely  absurd.  Women  are 
quite  as  intelligent  as  men.  Besides,  you  grossly  exaggerate  the 
difference  between  the  sexes.  Listen  to  Sydney  Smith,  for  whom 
I  have  often  heard  you  express  admiration:  'A  great  deal  has 
been  said  of  the  original  difference  of  capacity  between  men  and 
women;  as  if  women  were  more  quick,  and  men  more  judicious — 
as  if  women  were  more  remarkable  for  delicacy  of  association  and 
men  for  stronger  powers  of  attention.  All  this,  we  confess, 
appears  to  us  very  fanciful.  That  there  is  a  difference  in  the 
understandings  of  the  men  and  the  women  we  every  day  meet 
with,  everybody,  we  suppose,  must  perceive;  but  there  is  none 
surely  which  may  not  be  accounted  for  by  the  difference  of  cir- 
cumstances in  which  they  have  been  placed,  without  referring  to 
any  conjectural  difference  of  original  conformation  of  mind.  As 
long  as  boys  and  girls  run  about  in  the  dirt,  and  trundle  hoops 
together,  they  are  both  precisely  alike.  If  you  catch  up  one- half 
of  these  creatures,  and  train  them  to  a  particular  set  of  actions 
and  opinions,  and  the  other  half  to  a  perfectly  opposite  set,  of 
course  their  understandings  will  differ,  as  one  or  the  other  sort  of 
occupations  has  called  this  or  that  talent  into  action.  There  is 
surely  no  occasion  to  go  into  any  deeper  or  more  abstruse 


7i  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

reasoning,  in  order  to  explain  so  very  simple  a  phenomenon.' 
There,  that  flatly  contradicts  your  unwarranted  assumptions  of 
innumerable  sex  differences." 

' '  It  may  be  very  bold  on  my  part  to  venture  to  differ  from  so 
great  a  man  as  Sydney  Smith,  and  yet  I  have  the  temerity  to 
retain  my  opinions  on  the  subject  despite  the  contrary  views  of 
the  celebrated  'wit,  wag,  and  wicar,'  as  he  was  once  mischiev- 
ously and  alliteratively  called.  I  have  perhaps  said  enough, 
however,  as  to  the  excitability  and  impressionability  of  women; 
but  it  will  not  do  any  harm  to  repeat  that  your  sex  are  more 
extreme  in  both  good  and  evil  than  are  men.  I  might  say  some- 
thing about  the  great  female  criminals  of  history,  of  the  Lucretia 
Borgias,  Agrippinas,  and  Mary  Tudors,  but  I  refrain  from  so 
doing,  and  merely  quote  from  Dr.  Lombroso,  the  great  Italian 
specialist  in  criminology,  who  has  recently  published  a  book  on  the 
'Female  Offender,'  in  which  he  says:  'The  female  born  criminal 
is  far  more  terrible  than  the  male.  She  combines  the  worst 
qualities  of  both  sexes — the  woman's  excessive  desire  for  revenge, 
cunning,  cruelty,  love  of  dress,  and  untruthfulness ;  the  man's 
vices,  fickleness,  fearlessness,  audacity,  and  often  muscular 
strength.'  Celto  wrote  in  the  fifteenth  century:  'No  possible 
punishments  can  deter  women  from  heaping  up  crime  upon  crime. 
Their  perversity  of  mind  is  more  fertile  in  new  crimes  than  the 
imagination  of  a  judge  in  new  punishments.'  Rykise  said, 
'Feminine  criminality  is  more  cynical,  more  depraved,  and  more 
terrible  than  the  criminality  of  the  male.'  'Rarely,'  says  the 
Italian  proverb,  '  is  a  woman  wicked,  but  when  she  is,  she  sur- 
passes the  man. '  Euripides  exclaims:  '  The  violence  of  the  ocean 
waves  or  of  devouring  flames  is  terrible.  Terrible  is  poverty,  but 
woman  is  more  terrible  than  all  else.'  What  think  you  of  that, 
Matilda?' 

"I  don't  believe  a  word  of  it.  I  have  not  the  honor  of  the 
acquaintance  of  your  Dr.  Lombroso,  but  I  long  since  lost  all 
respect  for  old  Euripides.  His  representation  of  Clytemnestra  is 
that  of  a  fiend,  rather  than  a  human  being,  and  all  through  his 
tragedies  he  fairly  revels  in  slaughter  and  crime.  He  is  a 
butcher  in  his  instincts,  and,  really,  I  find  comfort  in  the  reflec- 
tion that  he  died  several  centuries  before  the  beginning  of  our  era. 
But  didn't  Sophocles  and  ^Eschylus  have  something  to  say  against 
women  ? ' ' 

"Of  course  thov  did.      Each  one  of  them  gave  his  version  of 


SEX   DIFFERENCES.  73 

the  little  peculiarities  of  Clytemnestra,  the  lady  whom  you 
mention,  and  each  very  plainly  betrays  his  opinion  that  her  con- 
duct in  the  murder  of  Agamemnon,  her  husband,  was  culpable. ' ' 

"Isn't  it  about  time  for  you  to  say  something  about  Xantippe, 
the  quarrelsome  wife  of  Socrates,  and  to  quote  with  approval  the 
advice  of  Thales  to  unmarried  men  ?  ' ' 

' '  Hardly,  Matilda.  I  prefer  to  maintain  a  discreet  silence  on 
the  subject  of  the  lady  you  mention,  and  as  for  Thales,  I  have 
no  idea  what  advice  of  his  you  allude  to." 

"Well,  sir,  he  was  one  of  the  seven  wise  men  of  Greece,  as 
you  know,  and  when  asked  to  prescribe  the  proper  period  for  a 
man  to  marry,  said,  'A  young  man  not  yet;  an  elder  man,  not 
at  all." 

"It  should  not  be  necessary  for  me  to  assure  you,  my  dear, 
that  I  do  not  agree  with  Thales  in  his  cynical  remark.  Probably 
his  own  matrimonial  experience  was  unfortunate,  while  mine  has 
been  highly  satisfactory.  But  we  are  wandering  from  the  sub- 
ject. I  believe  I  remarked  that  women  were  extreme  in  both 
good  and  evil.  You  surely  will  acknowledge  that  when  a  woman 
becomes  degraded,  her  reformation  seems  almost  an  impossibility, 
while  all  around  us  are  men  who,  repenting  of  the  vices  of  their 
youth,  are  now  living  useful  and  respectable  lives." 

' '  Yes,  sir,  that  does  seem  to  be  so,  but  I  do  not  attribute  it  to 
any  inherent  qualities  in  the  female  sex,  but  to  public  opinion, 
which  presses  so  heavily  on  fallen  women  as  to  make  their 
recovery  extremely  difficult." 

' '  Who  is  it,  Matilda,  that  does  most  to  make  that  public 
opinion?" 

"Oh,  I  know  what  you  are  getting  at  now,  sir!  You  want 
me  to  admit  that  woman's  hatred  of  woman,  and  unwillingness 
to  forgive  her  sin  and  folly,  are  chiefly  responsible  for  the  exist- 
ing condition  of  affairs  in  this  regard.  But  I  shall  admit  noth- 
ing of  the  kind.  That  assertion  has  passed  unchallenged  too 
long.  No,  sir,  it  is  the  men  who  are  most  inveterate  in  their 
hostility.  They  who  are  alone  responsible  for  woman's  missteps, 
are  the  severest  in  their  condemnation  of  her  conduct.  I  assert, 
confidently,  that  in  this  city,  to-day,  a  faithful  band  of  women 
are  doing  more  for  the  rescue  and  reformation  of  fallen  girls  than 
all  the  men  in  San  Francisco. ' ' 

"That  may  be,  Matilda,  but  the  very  work  in  which  the 
women  are  now  participating  was  started  by  men,  and  it  was  a 


74  DOMESTIC  DI:I:I>. 

long  time  before  they  could  persuade  the  respectable  members  of 
your  sex  to  have  anything  to  do  with  it.  Now,  I  am  glad  to 
say  the  ladies  are  really  interested  in  genuine  rescue  work,  and 
are  accomplishing  wonders  in  that  direction.  But  I  am  curious 
to  hear  whether  you  deny  the  latter  part  of  my  statement,  namely, 
that  women  are  extreme  in  good." 

' '  Oh,  no,  Edward,  my  natural  candor  compels  me  to  confess 
that!  In  fact,  I  shall  be  pleased  to  enumerate  several  instances 
of  extreme  female  virtue,  courage,  and  devotion;  that  is  if  you 
care  to  listen  to-them." 

"It  will  afford  me  the  utmost  pleasure,  my  dear.  Indeed, 
I  intended  to  remind  you  of  some  of  these  myself,  and  if  you 
omit  those  which  I  deem  most  deserving  of  mention,  I  shall  take 
the  liberty  of  calling  them  to  your  attention." 

"Well,  Edward,  there  was  Joan  of  Arc,  the  simple,  unlet- 
tered maiden,  who  at  the  age  of  nineteen  left  her  sheep,  and  by 
her  courage  and  love  of  country  brought  about  the  final  expul- 
sion of  the  English  from  France.  And  yet  this  heroine  was 
condemned  of  magic  and  heresy  by  six  French  bishops,  and 
burned  at  the  stake.  So  you  see  that  the  men  are  responsible 
for  her  death.  Lady  Jane  Gray,  who  was  cruelly  executed 
because  she  had  ]>ennitted  herself  to  be  placed  for  a  few  days 
upon  the  throne  of  England,  was  only  eighteen  years  old  at  the 
time  of  her  death.  For  simplicity  of  manners,  purity  of  heart, 
and  extensive  learning,  she  was  scarcely  ever  equaled  in  any 
age  or  country.  In  the  language  of  Fuller,  she  united  the 
innocency  of  childhood,  the  beauty  of  youth,  the  solidity  of 
middle  life,  and  the  gravity  of  old  age.  She  had  the  birth  of  a 
princess,  the  learning  of  a  divine,  and  the  life  of  a  saint;  and 
yet  suffered  the  death  of  a  malefactor  for  the  of  lenses  of  her 
parents.  On  the  wall  of  her  prison  in  the  tower  she  left  a  Latin 
inscription,  scratched  with  a  pin,  which  may  be  paraphrased  as 
follows: — 

"  '  Harmless  all  malice,  if  our  God  be  nigh; 
Fruitless  all  pains,  if  he  his  help  deny. 
Patient  I  pass  these  gloomy  hours  away, 
And  wait  the  morning  of  eternal  day.'  ': 

"Excuse  me  for  interrupting  you,  Matilda,  but  permit  me  to 

inquire  who  it  was  that  so  wickedly  took  the  life  of  this  beautiful 
and  talented  young  Ionian." 

"Why,  the  executioner,  of  course." 


SKX    DIFFKJIKNCRS.  75 

"Fie,  fie,  Matilda;  don't  be  guilty  of  prevarication!  You 
know  what  I  mean.  Who  caused  her  death?" 

"  Well,  sir,  if  you  are  so  anxious  to  know,  it  was  Queen 
Mary,  the  sister  of  Elizabeth.  But  I  suppose  you  want  to  draw 
out  the  fact  that  she  was  a  woman.  I  admit  it.  She  was  a 
disgrace  to  her  sex,  a  thing  to  be  accounted  for  only  by  the 
supposition  that  she  inherited  the  cruel  tendencies  of  her  father, 
the  brutal  Henry  VIII.  But  let  me  proceed.  Mary  Queen  of 
Scots,  so  ill-fated  and  so  beautiful,  was  a  woman  who  had  many 
faults  of  character,  but  she  died  like  a  heroine  and  a  Christian. 
She  received  her  sentence  of  death  with  the  following  words: 
'The  news  you  bring  can  not  but  be  most  welcome,  since  they 
announce  the  termination  of  my  miseries.  Nor  do  I  account 
that  soul  to  be  deserving  of  the  felicities  of  immortality,  which 
can  shrink  under  the  sufferings  of  the  body,  or  scruple  at  the 
stroke  that  sets  it  free.'  During  the  nineteen  years  of  close 
imprisonment  which  preceded  her  execution  she  preserved  the 
magnanimity  of  a  queen,  and  practiced  with  sincerity  the  duties 
of  a  Christian." 

"By  the  way,  Matilda,  who — 

"That  will  do,  sir.  I  know  just  what  you  are  going  to  say, 
and  while  your  levity  is  provoking,  I  freely  admit  that  her  death 
was  caused  by  her  cousin,  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  I  much  regret 
that  this  great  queen  should  thus  have  stained  her  otherwise  lus- 
trous fame.  One  of  the  greatest  of  monarchs  was  Queen  Bess, 
and  her  thoughts  and  conduct  were  usually  characterized  by 
nobility,  magnanimity,  and  true  grandeur  of  soul.  Her  name 
has  been  given  to  the  period  during  which  the  foundations  of 
England's  future  greatness  were  securely  laid,  and  in  which  a 
literature  was  produced  which  succeeding  generations  have  sought 
in  vain  to  equal,  and  which  preceding  ones  were  never  able  to 
surpass.  Of  this  glorious  era  Carlyle  says:  'But  indeed  that 
strange  outbudding  of  our  whole  English  existence,  which  we 
call  the  Elizabethan  era,  did  not  it  too  come  as  of  its  own 
accord?'  ' 

"Xo\v,  don't  be  offended,  Matilda,  if  I  remind  you  that 
Shakespeare  and  the  other  great  authors  of  this  period  were  all 
men." 

"That  proves  nothing,  Edward,  for  the  women  in  those  days 
were  mostly  suppressed." 

"And  why,  dear,  did  not  the  queen  come  1o  the  rescue  of  her 
suffering  sex  ?  ' ' 


76  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

"As  you  know  full  well,  sir,  she  lacked  the  power.  Great  as 
she  was,  and  mighty  as  were  her  royal  prerogatives,  she  was 
utterly  powerless  to  change  the  status  of  womanhood.  Had  she 
attempted  to  do  so,  a  revolution  would  have  been  the  inevitable 
result." 

"And  don't  you  suspect,  Matilda,  that  Queen  Bess  lacked  the 
inclination  as  well  as  the  power  to  help  her  female  subjects;  in 
fact,  that  she  was  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  idea  that  women 
were  the  '  weaker  vessels, '  and  that  they  were  placed  by  an 
all- wise  Providence  in  perpetual  subjection  to  men?" 

"I  have  no  doubt,  sir,  that  she  was  influenced  much  by  the 
intellectual  atmosphere  in  which  she  lived.  But  your  remarks 
tend  to  divert  our  conversation  from  its  true  course.  There  are 
many  other  women  of  whose  virtues  and  heroism  I  Avish  to  speak. 
Conspicuous  among  these  Avas  Isabella,  queen  of  Spain,  who 
shared  most  of  her  husband's  campaigns,  provided  by  her  fore- 
thought for  every  contingency,  comforted  his  armies  in  reverses, 
and  softened  by  her  humanity  and  bene\rolence  the  miseries  of 
war.  She  was  the  first  to  appoint  regular  military  surgeons,  who 
Avere  paid  out  of  her  OAVH  revenues,  and  she  also  provided  six 
tents,  furnished  Avith  eATery  necessary  appliance,  which  were 
knoAArn  as  the  'Queen's  Hospital/  thus  originating  that  depart- 
ment of  warfare  which  has  been  so  potent  an  agency  in  alleviat- 
ing the  horrors  of  the  battle  field.  Isabella  also  distinguished 
herself  by  declaring  the  freedom  of  the  American  Indians,  and 
on  one  occasion  she  ordered  the  instant  return  of  several  cargoes 
of  them  which  had  been  sent  as  slaves  to  Spain.  But  her 
greatest  claim  to  renoAvn  and  the  gratitude  of  the  world  lies  in 
the  fact  that  she  made  possible  the  discovery  of  America." 

' '  Let  me  ask  you,  Matilda,  if  you  do  not  consider  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Inquisition  her  crowning  achievement?" 

"No,  indeed,"  replied  Mrs.  Notion.  "Her  husband,  Ferdi- 
nand, who  was  a  narroAV-minded  bigot,  had  much  more  to  do 
Avith  the  Inquisition  than  she." 

"Well,  Matilda,  AVC  Avill  say  no  more  about  that  for  the 
present.  But  you  give  Isabella  so  much  credit  for  the  discovery 
of  America,  that  I  am  prompted  to  ask  Avho  it  was  that  made 
that  great  addition  to  the  knowledge,  Avealth,  and  Avelfare  of  the 
human  race." 

"Oh,  America  Avas  discovered  by  a  man,  if  I  must  assure  you 
of  Avhat  every  child  knows!  But,  Avhile  Columbus  Avas  the  active 


,-UCX    DIFFERENCES.  77 

agent  in  this  brilliant  enterprise,  I  would  have  you  realize  that 
without  the  encouragement  and  help  of  a  woman,  he  would  have 
utterly  failed  in  his  undertaking.  So  it  has  ever  been  in  human 
history.  In  every  crisis  of  our  race,  the  man  who,  the  recog- 
nized leader  of  thought  or  action,  has  gained  the  plaudits  of  the 
multitudes,  has  had  his  hands  strengthened  by  some  good  woman. 
In  fact,  so  universal  has  this  been  that  I  am  forced  to  believe  in 
the  existence  of  a  deep-seated  principle  of  humanity  that  without 
the  active,  though  perhaps  hidden,  participation  of  woman,  no 
great  progress  or  uplift  of  our  race  can  be  attained.  At  some 
other  time  I  shall  take  much  pleasure  in  demonstrating  by  his- 
torical references  the  truth  of  this  assertion,  but  at  present  I  wish 
to  give  other  instances  of  remarkable  female  virtue  and  nobility 
of  soul.  Let  me  at  present,  however,  quote  briefly  from  the 
great  Disraeli :  '  It  is  at  the  foot  of  women  we  lay  the  laurel 
that  without  her  smile  would  never  have  been  gained;  it  is  her 
image  that  strikes  the  lyre  of  the  poet,  that  animates  the  voice  in 
the  blaze  of  eloquent  faction,  and  guides  the  brain  in  the  august 
toil  of  stately  councils. ' ' 

' '  A  true  sentiment,  very  beautifully  expressed ! ' '  exclaimed 
Mr.  Notion.  ' '  But  I  beg  you  in  your  enumeration  of  instances 
of  female  nobility,  virtue,  and  grandeur  of  character  not  to 
forget  the  case  of  Milton's  first  wife." 

"Why,  what  did  she  do  to  distinguish  herself?"  asked 
Mrs.  Notion. 

"Much  in  every  way,  Matilda.  Shortly  after  their  marriage, 
a  disagreement  occurred,  which  resulted  in  their  separation,  she 
returning  to  her  father's  house,  and  he  publishing  his  work  on 
the  'Doctrine  and  Discipline  of  Divorce.'  It  seems  that  he 
contemplated  another  matrimonial  venture,  but  was  prevented 
from  proceeding  in  that  direction  by  the  sudden  appearance  of 
his  wife,  on  the  occasion  of  his  visit  to  the  house  of  a  friend. 
She  came  from  an  adjoining  room,  knelt  at  his  feet,  made  sub- 
mission to  him,  and  begged  his  pardon  for  whatever  had  been 
faulty  in  her  conduct.  A  reconciliation  resulted,  and  they  lived 
happily  together  until  her  death." 

' '  But  I  have  been  speaking,  sir,  of  the  virtues  and  courage  of 
women,  and  you,  very  inappropriately,  it  seems  to  me,  drag  in 
an  instance  of  female  docility  and  submission.  You  doubtless 
consider  the  conduct  of  Mrs.  Milton  very  admirable,  but  I  am 
incapable  of  sharing  your  admiration.  Much  more  to  my  liking 


78  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

is  the  character  of  Winifred  Herbert,  Countess  of  Nithsdale, 
whose  husband,  the  Earl  of  Nithsdale,  was  sentenced  to  tlie  death 
})enalty  for  attempting  to  seat  the  Pretender  on  the  British  throne 
in  1715.  She  secured  access  to  her  husband's  room  in  the 
Tower,  and  after  exhausting  every  effort  to  effect  his  pardon, 
she  induced  two  lady  friends  to  accompany  her  to  the  prison  on 
the  evening  before  the  day  set  for  his  execution.  They  were 
named  respectively  Mrs.  Morgan  and  Mrs.  Mills.  She  intro- 
duced them  separately  to  the  earl's  room,  and  by  clever  manage- 
ment, dressed  hint  in  her  own  clothing.  Then,  after  sending  her 
two  confederates  away  separately  on  different  pretexts,  she  left  the 
room  in  company  with  her  husband,  whom  she  addressed  as 
Mrs.  Betty,  and  urged  to  hasten  to  her  lodging  and  bring  back 
her  maid.  The  earl  was  hidden  for  several  days,  and  finally 
escaped  to  France  in  the  livery  of  the  Venetian  ambassador. 
The  voyage  to  Calais  was  made  in  a  small  vessel,  which  accom- 
plished the  passage  with  such  remarkable  rapidity  that  the 
captain  exclaimed,  'that  if  his  passengers  were  flying  for  their 
lives  the  ship  could  not  have  sailed  quicker.'  The  countess  at 
the  risk  of  her  life  remained  in  England  for  some  time,  in  order 
that  she  might  secure  some  important  family  papers  which  she 
had  buried  near  their  house  in  Scotland,  and  also  that  she  might 
effect  the  escape  of  her  sou.  At  last,  after  many  thrilling 
adventures,  she  succeeded  in  both  objects,  and  lived  happily  with 
her  husband  in  Rome  for  thirty-three  years." 

"Matilda,"  asked  Mr.  Notion,  as  he  looked  admiringly  at  his 
wife,  "where  did  you  acquire  all  this  knowledge  of  the  heroic 
members  of  your  sex?  Though  my  reading  has  been  somewhat 
extensive,  I  must  say  that  many  of  these  matters  have  escaped 
my  attention." 

"To  Elizabeth  Starling,  a  woman  of  no  mean  literary  attain- 
ments, I  owe  considerable  of  this  information,  which  I  have 
gleaned  from  her  work  entitled  '  Noble  Deeds  of  Women ;  or 
Examples  of  Female  Courage  and  Virtue. '  ' 

"  The  lady  certainly  deserves  great  credit  for  having  compiled 
so  interesting  a  record.  She  must  have  spent  much  industry  and 
ingenuity  in  gathering  together  such  varied  material." 

"Yes,  she  did,  and  these  qualities  are  characteristic  of  true 
womanhood.  But  let  me  proceed.  Marshal  Munich,  who  was 
condemned  to  end  his  days  in  Siberia,  was  accompanied  by  his 
faithful  wife,  who  voluntarily  shared  his  imprisonment  and  pri- 


SEX    DIFFERENCES.  79 

vations  for  twenty-one  years,  and  did  her  utmost  to  make  his 
lot  comfortable.  Another  remarkable  case  of  female  heroism 
occurred  in  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century,  when  a  lion 
escaped  from  the  menagerie  of  the  Grand  Duke  of  Florence, 
and  seized  an  infant,  which  a  woman  who  sought  to  escape  his 
fury,  accidentally  dropped.  In  despair,  she  threw  herself  on  her 
knees  before  the  animal,  and  implored  with  all  the  energy  and 
expression  of  a  mother  in  despair,  the  life  of  her  child.  The 
lion  stopped — fixed  his  eyes  upon  her — placed  the  infant  upon 
the  ground,  without  having  injured  it  in  the  least,  and  went 
away.  What  think  you  of  such  magnificent  bravery  as  that  ?  ' ' 

"I  think,  dear,  that  only  a  mother's  love  would  be  capable  of 
such  heroic  daring." 

"And  now,  Edward,  I  shall  relate  an  instance  of  woman's 
magnanimity.  Eudosia,  wife  of  Theodosius  the  Great,  though 
treated  by  her  brothers  with 'the  utmost  barbarity  before  her 
accession  to  the  throne,  procured  for  them  two  of  the  most 
lucrative  offices  in  the  state,  and  contented  herself  with  saying 
to  them:  'If  you  had  not  compelled  me  to  leave  my  country,  I 
should  never  have  visited  Constantinople,  nor  had  it  ever  been  in 
my  power  to  give  you  this  incontestible  proof  of  my  sincerest 
love  and  affection.'  Julia,  the  mother  of  Anthony,  rescued 
Lucius  Caesar,  her  brother,  from  the  vengeance  of  her  son,  when 
the  latter  had  made  himself  master  of  Rome,  and  she  incurred 
great  peril  in  doing  so. ' ' 

' '  But,  Matilda,  you  must  admit  that  these  are  rare  instances 
of  nobleness  of  soul,  and  not  to  be  expected  from  the  vast 
majority  of  your  sex.  I  would  remind  you,  too,  that  Eudosia, 
in  pardoning  her  brothers,  was  merely  imitating  the  example  of 
Joseph. ' ' 

"No,  sir,  I  decline  to  make  any  such  admission.  And  as  for 
Joseph,  he  was  his  mother's  darling,  and  acquired  his  magnanim- 
ity from  her,  and  not  from  the  crafty,  selfish  Jacob.  But, 
Speaking  of  woman's  nobleness  of  soul,  innumerable  multitudes 
of  women  have  gladly  sacrificed  themselves  for  their  husbands, 
and  are  doing  so  to-day.  Do  not  imagine  for  a  moment  that  the 
willingness  of  the  Hindoo  women  to  offer  up  their  lives  upon  the 
funeral  pyres  of  their  dead  husbands,  is  due  to  mere  custom.  No, 
it  is  only  an  extreme  mode  of  manifesting  the  self-abnegation  and 
wifely  devotion  of  our  sex.  I  have  already  referred  to  ladies  who 
shared  their  husband's  banishment  and  imprisonment.  I  can 


80  DOMESTIC 

mention  many  others,  but  shall  confine  myself  to  a  few.  Antonia 
Flaxilla,  and  Egnatia  Maximilla,  \vhose  husbands  "were  exiled 
by  Nero,  gladly  accompanied  their  beloved  partners  into  banish- 
ment. When  Lentulus  Crustellus  was  exiled  in  Sicily  by  the 
Triumvirate,  his  wife,  Sulpitia,  was  prevented  by  her  mother,  Julia, 
from  joining  him,  and  made  her  escape  from  her  custodians  in 
the  attire  of  a  maid-servant.  At  last  she  reached  his  side,  pre- 
ferring a  share  in  his  miseries  and  misfortunes  to  all  the  luxury 
and  happiness  that  Rome  could  offer.  Fannia,  the  illustrious 
wife  of  Helvidius  Priscus,  attended  him  in  exile  up  to  the  time  of 
his  death,  and  her  virtues  have  been  commemorated  by  Pliny  in 
one  of  his  Epistles." 

' '  You  convince  me,  dearest,  that  I  was  wrong,  and  that  those 
cases  where  women  are  unwilling  to  make  extreme  sacrifices  for 
their  husbands  are  exceptional." 

"I  fear,  sir,  that  you  speak  ironically,  but  you  must  listen  to 
other  cases  of  our  self-sacrificing  affection.  Sibilla,  wife  of  Robert, 
Duke  of  Normandy,  the  eldest  son  of  William  the  Conqueror, 
when  he  had  been  wounded  by  a  poisoned  arrow,  and  refused  to 
allow  her  to  risk  her  life  for  his,  sucked  the  venom  from  his 
wound  while  he  slept,  and  thus  saved  his  life  at  the  sacrifice  of 
her  own.  Eleanor,  wife  of  Edward  the  First,  did  the  same 
service  for  her  husband  in  Palestine,  but  happily  saved  his  life 
without  serious  injury  to  herself.  Another  notable  case  of  female 
devotion  was  that  of  Rathean  Herpin,  who  about  the  time  that 
Spinola  with  the  Bavarians  first  entered  the  Palatinate,  finding 
that  her  husband,  Christopher  Thoeon,  was  afflicted  with 
apoplexy,  bore  him  upon  her  back  1,300  English  miles." 

' '  I  would  not  have  you  forget  Grace  Darling,  Matilda,  in 
your  list  of  heroines." 

"No,  indeed,  Edward.  Her  name  is  associated  with  one  of 
the  noblest  deeds  of  heroism  which  has  done  honor  to  humanity. 
Her  father  was  keeper  of  the  lighthouse  on  one  of  the  Fame 
Islands,  on  the  coast  of  Northumberland,  and  when  she  was  a 
mere  child,  she  and  he  risked  their  lives  in  the  effort  to 
row  a  boat  through  angry  waves  to  where  nine  survivors  of  the 
wrecked  Forfarshire,  were  on  the  point  of  perishing.  The 
venture,  undertaken  at  her  suggestion,  was  a  fearful  one,  but  was 
successful,  and  the  eight  men  and  one  woman  were  rescued. 
(Jrace  immediately  became  world-famous,  but  bore  her  fame  and 
prosperity  with  modesty  and  gentleness.  She  died  of  consumption 


SEX    DIFFERENCES.  81 

at  the  early  age  of  twenty-six.     But  I  fear  I  weary  you,  Edward, 
with  my  talk  of  all  these  women. ' ' 

"No,  no,  dear,  I   keenly  enjoy  your  narrative  of  womanly 
greatness  and  sublimity  of  soul. ' ' 

' '  If  I  had  time,  Ned,  I  might  tell  you  of  the  generosity  of 
Catherine  of  Russia;  of  the  amiable  characteristics  of  the  Empress 
Josephine;  of  the  beautiful  benevolence  of  Anne  Boleyn;  of  the 
courage  and  fortitude  of  Madame  Malezoy,  Madame  Grimaldi, 
and  Madame  Roland  at  the  time  of  the  French  Revolution;  of 
how  the  Burgundians  were  repulsed  by  Jane  Hanchette,  when 
they  besieged  the  town  of  Beauvais;  of  how  Margaret  of  Anjou, 
wife  of  Henry  the  Sixth,  by  her  rare  genius  and  courage  sup- 
ported her  feeble  husband  under  the  most  trying  circumstances, 
teaching  him  how  to  conquer  by  her  example,  replacing  him  upon 
the  throne,  and  twice  rescuing  him  from  prison;  of  the  coura- 
geous conduct  of  the  Duchess  of  Ferrara,  daughter  of  Louis  the 
Twelfth,  in  protecting  the  Prince  of  Conde;  of  the  heroism  of 
Augustl  na,  the  Maid  of  Saragossa,  when  that  town  was  beseiged 
by  the  French  in  1809;  of  the  noble  intrepidity  of  Mademoiselle 
de  la  Charce,  who  for  her  defense  of  Dauphiuy,  in  1692,  against 
the  Duke  of  Savoy,  received  from  Louis  the  Fourteenth  a  pension, 
and  was  permitted  to  place  her  sword  and  armor  in  the  treasury 
of  St.  Dem's;  of  the  wonderful  bravery  of  the  Empress  of  Austria, 
Maria  Theresa;  and  of  many  other  deeds  of  valor,  goodness,  and 
devotion  by  members  of  my  sex. ' ' 

"Your  summary  of  those  gifted  women  is  most  interesting,  and 
I  shall  gladly  listen  to  more  about  them  from  your  lips." 

' '  I  am  glad  to  hear  you  say  so,  Edward,  but  I  am  so  anxious 
to  reach  other  phases  of  the  discussion,  that  I  can  not  dwell  too 
long  on  these  instances  of  female  heroism,  interesting  as  they  are. 
I  shall,  however,  relate  a  few  more  cases.  The  fair  page  of 
woman's  fume  has  been  brightened  by  many  distinguished 
examples  of  filial  devotion.  One  Roman  lady,  whose  mother  had 
been  sentenced  to  death,  and  left  to  die  of  starvation  by  her  jailer, 
visited  her  daily  in  prison,  though  not  allowed  to  carry  any  food 
with  her.  The  length  of  time  during  which  the  imprisoned  lady 
lived  without  any  apparent  inconvenience  from  the  lack  of  nour- 
ishment, aroused  the  suspicions  of  her  custodian,  who  upon  inves- 
tigation ascertained  that  she  had  subsisted  upon  her  daughter's 
milk.  This  discovery  resulted  in  her  pardon,  and  a  temple  was 
erected  on  the  spot  and  dedicated  to  Filial  Piety.  Xantippe, 
6 


82  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

another  Roman  lady,  supported  her  aged  father  in  a  similar 
manner,  in  order  to  preserve  his  life  while  in  prison.  In  ^ew 
York  in  the  severe  winter  of  1783,  the  daughter  of  an  aged  couple 
who  were  in  great  distress  and  poverty,  and  entirely  dependent 
upon  her  for  their  support,  having  learned  that  a  dentist  would 
pay  three  guineas  for  every  sound  fore  tooth,  went  to  him  for  the 
purpose  of  making  the  sacrifice  of  her  teeth.  Having  learned 
the  cause  of  her  resolution,  he  presented  her  with  ten  guineas. 
The  Princess  Maria  Helena  Elizabeth,  of  France,  sister  of  the 
ill-fated  Louis  XVI,  refused  to  abandon  her  brother  and  the 
queen  at  the  time  of  their  imprisonment,  but  voluntarily  shared 
their  confinement,  and  herself  endured  the  same  dreadful  death 
which  was  inflicted  upon  them.  Mademoiselle  Delleglace  endured 
such  hardships  in  her  efforts  to  save  the  life  of  her  father,  when  he 
was  arrested  at  Lyons,  France,  that  when  she  finally  succeeded  in 
her  endeavors,  her  own  health  gave  way,  and  she  died  in  her  be- 
loved parent's  arms." 

"You  haven't  collected  any  data  showing  the  self-sacrifice 
of  men — how  they  died  for  their  mothers,  sisters,  wives,  and 
daughters,  have  you,  Matilda  ?  ' ' 

"  No;  nor  do  I  believe  they  are  to  be  obtained,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  men  are  not  in  the  habit  of  doing  anything  of  the 
kind.  But  one  of  the  noblest  examples  of  self-sacrificing  devotion 
on  the  part  of  a  wife  is  that  of  Mrs.  Lucy  Hutchinson,  whose 
husband  was  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Parliamentary  party  during 
the  civil  war  which  resulted  in  the  execution  of  Charles  the  First. 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  actively  assisted  the  colonel  in  all  his  under- 
takings, and  at  one  time  during  the  siege  by  the  Royalists  of  a 
town  of  which  he  was  the  commandant,  she  acted  as  surgeon. 
She  was  brave,  beautiful,  and  remarkably  talented,  and  after  the 
Restoration  exerted  herself  to  the  utmost  to  save  the  life  of  her 
husband.  He  Avas  included  in  the  Act  of  Oblivion,  but  was 
subsequently  apprehended.  During  his  long  imprisonment  she 
did  her  utmost  to  cheer  and  comfort  him,  and  when  at  last  he 
died  of  a  fever  in  prison,  she  wrote  his  biography  for  the  benefit, 
of  her  children.  Madame  de  Mouchy  not  only  accompanied  her 
husband  the  Marechal  to  prison  and  the  place  of  execution,  but 
insisted  upon  snflering  capital  punishment  in  his  companionship.  I 
shall  not  speak  of  the  innumerable  women  who  gladly  wore;  the 
martyr's  crown  rather  than  deny  their  Saviour,  or  of  those  who 
cheerfully  resigned  themselves  to  die  for  the  sake  of  their  country, 


SEX    DIFFERENCES.  83 

but  will  conclude  what  I  have  to  say  by  quoting  from  Gall  the 
following:  '  Who  does  not  know  many  instances  of  the  most 
heroic  devotedness  on  the  part  of  the  sex  ?  A  woman  spares  no 
effort  to  serve  her  friend.  When  it  is  a  question  of  saving  her 
brother,  her  husband,  her  father,  she  penetrates  into  prisons — she 
throws  herself  at  the  feet  of  her  sovereign.  Such  are  the  women 
of  our  day,  and  such  has  history  represented  those  of  antiquity. '  ' 

' '  You  have  certainly  made  a  very  good  showing  for  your  sex, 
and  I  am  Just  as  proud  of  it  as  you  could  possibly  be,"  remarked 
Mr.  Notion,  "for  I  have  long  recognized  the  fact  that  there  is  no 
necessary  conflict  or  antagonism  between  the  sexes,  but  that,  on 
the  contrary,  their  Interests  are  absolutely  identical. ' ' 

"And  yet,"  said  Mrs.  Notion,  "you  persist  in  treating  us 
with  the  most  glaring  injustice.  Our  marriage  customs,  for 
instance,  are  palpably  inequitable  and  unfair  to  the  wife,  who  is 
subordinated  to  the  husband  in  every  possible  way.  In  this 
connection  Mrs.  Lilie  Devereux  Blake  gives  an  illustration 
which  is  very  striking.  She  says:  '  Suppose  a  man  should  come 
to  another  man  .and  say:  "I  would  like  to  have  you  unite  with 
me  in  a  partnership  for  life,  but  let  me  explain  on  what  terms. 
In  the  first  place,  the  firm  name  shall  be  mine  alone ;  you  must 
give  up  your  name  entirely.  Then  all  the  money  that  we  earn 
shall  be  mine  alone,  and  I  will  give  you  only  what  I  choose  of  it, 
providing  you  with  such  board  and  lodging  as  I  see  fit,  and 
giving  you  new  clothes  when  I  think  you  need  them.  You  must 
fully  understand,  also,  that  I  am  to  have  perfect  liberty  to  go  and 
come  as  I  please,  but  that  you  are  never  to  go  anywhere  by  day 
or  by  night  without  my  leave. ' '  What  reply  would  any  intelli- 
gent and  high-minded  man  make  to  such  a  proposition  ?  and  yet 
this  is  substantially  what  any  man  says  to  a  woman  when  he  asks 
her  hand  in  marriage.'  ' 

"Mrs.  Blake's  illustration  is  utterly  absurd,  Matilda.  In  the 
first  place,  it  begs  the  question  entirely  by  ignoring  the  difference 
of  sex,  and  assuming  that  the  marital  agreement,  or  contract,  as 
it  is  sometimes  called,  between  a  man  and  a  woman,  is  similar  in 
any  way  or  capable  of  being  compared  at  all  with  any  contract 
between  two  men.  So  far  as  the  giving  up  of  her  maiden  name 
by  the  wife  is  concerned,  a  moment's  reflection  will  show  that  the 
unity  of  the  family  requires  this  step  on  the  part  of  one  of  the 
spouses;  otherwise  the  children  of  the  -marriage  would  take  two 
surnames  instead  of  one,  and  in  a  few  generations  children  would 


84  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

come  into  the  world  burdened  with  a  vast  accumulation  of  ances- 
tral patronymics.  Relative  to  the  earnings,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  as  to  the  practical  advisability,  as  well  as  the  abstract 
justice,  of  giving  their  control  to  the  spouse  who  earns  them, 
whether  husband  or  wife,  and  whose  practical  experience  makes 
him  more  competent  to  take  care  of  them.  And  with  reference 
to  the  wife  depending  upon  her  husband  for  such  provision  as  he 
deems  proper,  I  would  simply  say  that,  if  she  has  not  sufficient 
confidence  in  him  to  trust  him  to  provide  for  her  to  the  best  of 
his  ability,  she  should  not  marry  him.  And,  so  far  as  freedom 
of  locomotion  by  day  and  by  night  is  concerned,  I  assert  that 
married  women  in  this  country  do  enjoy  the  right  of  going  where 
they  please  in  the  daytime,  and  generally  at  night,  too;  that  they 
are  less  likely  to  be  reprimanded  for  doing  so  than  men,  and  that 
they  enjoy  this  liberty  frequently  while  their  husbands  are  toiling 
for  the  subsistence  of  the  family. ' ' 

' '  When  sex  questions  are  concerned,  Edward,  you  are  singu- 
larly obtuse  and  obstinate.  You  know  as  well  as  I  do  that  if  the 
married  women  of  this  country  were  even  to  hint  at  the  desirability 
of  their  going  out  alone  at  night,  their  husbands  would  consider 
themselves  insulted,  and  would  spurn  the  mere  possibility  of  such 
outrageous  and  immodest  conduct.  And  yet  in  nine  cases  out 
of  ten  the  same  men  would  go  out  night  after  night,  and  never 
deign  to  tell  their  lonely  and  long-suffering  wives  where  they 
were  going." 

' '  But,  Matilda,  you  forget — ' ' 

"Sir,  I  forget  nothing." 

And  thus  abruptly  the  conversation  closed. 


Mr.  and  Mrs.  Notion  Conclude  Their  Discussion 
of  the  Psychic  and  Physiological  Differ- 
ences between  the  Sexes. 

"  What  a  strange  thing  is  man!  and  what  a  stranger 
Is  woman!     What  a  whirlpool  is  her  head, 
And  what  a  whirlpool  full  of  depth  and  danger 
Is  all  the  rest  about  her!     Whether  wed, 
Or  widow,  maid  or  mother,  she  can  change  her 
Mind  like  the  wind;  whatever  she  has  said 
Or  done  is  light  to  what  she'll  say  or  do; 
The  oldest  thing  on  record,  and  yet  new!" 

— Byron. 

"Well,  Matilda,"  exclaimed  Mr.  Notion  one  evening  after 
dinner,  "  I  hope  you  will  deign  to  talk  with  me  a  little  to-night. 
I  have  tried  for  several  evenings  to  continue  our  last  conversa- 
tion, but  your  taciturnity  has  been  invincible." 

' '  The  fact  is,  Mr.  Notion,  that  I  can  not  comprehend  why  you 
should  wish  to  discuss  such  weighty  questions  with  a  mere  woman, 
a  creature  unintelligent,  capricious,  prejudiced,  and  generally 
incapable  of  such  mental  processes  as  involve  reason,  logic,  or 
consistency. ' ' 

"You  greatly  exaggerate — unconsciously  no  doubt — what  I 
have  said  in  some  of  our  previous  conversations.  Nor  must  you 
forget,  my  dear,  that  my  remarks  were  made  concerning  your  sex 
generally,  and  were  not  intended  to  apply  to  you  as  an  individual. 
The  fact  that  you  are  so  reflective  and  almost  judicial  in  your 
mental  modes,  only  goes  to  prove  you  a  rare  exception  to 
women  generally,  and  to  indicate  that  I  exercised  much  discrim- 
ination and  good  judgment  when  I  did  myself  the  honor  of 
selecting  you  as  a  life  companion." 

"Well,  Edward,"  said  Mrs.  Notion  in  much  milder  tones, 
"I  suppose  I  must  be  content  to  endure  your  male  arrogance, 
conceit,  and  assumption  of  sex  superiority,  and  that  I  do  wrong 
to  become  impatient  with  conduct  on  your  part  which  is  the 

(85) 


86  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

unconscious  and  unavoidable  expression  of  your  mental  bias  and 
peculiar  way  of  looking  at  things.  In  other  words,  I  am  unrea- 
sonable when  I  expect  you  to  rise  above  your  sex,  and  allow 
myself  to  forget  that  you  are  only  a  man,  after  all." 

' '  I  am  glad,  darling,  that  you  view  the  matter  so  philosoph- 
ically, and  are  determined  henceforth  not  to  expect  too  much 
from  me.  All  things  are  possible  to  her  who  waits,  and  it  may 
be  that  with  much  patient  training  you  will  eventually  mold  me 
into  shape. ' ' 

"Not  at  all,  Ned,  not  at  all.  I  have  given  that  up.  The 
task  which  I  have  assigned  myself  is  the  more  practical  one  of 
looking  at  your  virtues  rather  than  your  faults,  and  patiently 
enduring  the  latter  while  I  enjoy  the  former.  But  what  is  it  you 
are  so  anxious  to  say  on  this  subject?  " 

' '  I  wish  to  show  my  great  respect  for  your  sex  by  quoting  from 
a  good  woman,  and  one  whom  you  much  admire.  I  refer  to  Miss 
Muloch,  one  of  your  favorite  authors.  I  know  that  you  will 
listen  with  respect  to  her  views  on  these  questions. ' ' 

"I  don't  know  whether  I  will  or  not.  While  I  have  read  her 
books  with  pleasure,  it  does  not  follow  that  I  shall  accept  her 
ideas  as  in  any  sense  authoritative.  Besides,  she  was  never 
married,  and  knows  nothing  about  men;  but  I  am  curious  to  hear 
what  she  says  on  this  question." 

"She  states  in  a  recent  book  of  hers,  called  'A  "Woman's 
Thoughts  about  Women, '  that  woman  is  the  weaker  vessel;  that 
the  sexes  are  not  equal ;  that  marriage  is  ceasing  to  become  the 
common  lot,  and  unhappy  marriages  are  common;  that  not  one 
woman  in  five  thousand  is  fit  to  be  a  mother;  that  woman's 
happiest  and  most  natural  life  is  when  she  loses  herself  in  the 
exquisite  absorption  of  home;  that  women  are  deficient  injustice, 
and  that  it  was  a  mistake  to  make  that  admirable  virtue  a  female; 
that  stinginess  is  much  more  characteristic  of  women  than  of  men; 
that  the  husband  who  has  to  listen  every  evening  to  a  long  tale  of 
domestic  woe,  belongs  to  a  numerous  species,  and  deserves  much 
pity;  that  among  the  distinguishing  faults  of  women  are  frivolity, 
irrationality,  and  incapacity  to  seize  on  more  than  one  idea  at  the 
same  time;  that  women  rarely  keep  the  secrets  of  friends  after  the 
termination  of  the  friendship;  that  most  women  are  prone  to 
gossip;  that  'very  few  women  are  absolutely  and  invariably 
veracious;'  that  'men  lie  wilfully,  deliberately,  on  principle  as 
it  were;  but  women  quite  involuntarily;'  that  women  habitually 


SEX   DIFFERENCES.  87 

talk  about  marriage  in  a  manner  which  impairs  its  sanctity;  that 
woman's  proper  place  is  home;  that  foul-mouthed  women  are 
only  too  common  in  all  classes  of  society. ' ' 

With  unnatural  composure,  Mrs.  Notion  asked  if  he  had 
finished  his  enumeration  of  Miss  Muloch's  statements,  and  upon 
his  replying  that  he  had,  thus  continued:  "Before  this  matter 
proceeds  any  farther,  sir,  I  desire  to  know  if  you  indorse  all  the 
accusations  which  this  woman  has  made  against  her  sex?  " 

"  Why,  no,  my  dear,"  answered  her  husband,  who  saw  that  a 
crisis  had  been  reached,  and  that  only  the  utmost  adroitness  upon 
his  part  would  prevent  the  sudden  and  disagreeable  termination 
of  the  colloquy;  "in  the  bald  form  in  which  I  have  combined  the 
lady's  ideas,  their  general  effect  is  entirely  misleading.  I  was 
merely  stating  as  concisely  as  possible  the  points  in  which  she 
differed  from  the  majority  of  the  prominent  women  of  the  day.  I 
did  not  mean  to  be  understood  as  asserting  that  she  had  expressed 
herself  with  equal  brevity  and  emphasis,  or  that  she  had  not  said 
many  things  complimentary  of  her  sex.  If  the  points  which  I 
have  gathered  from  her  book  were  the  only  ones  she  made,  I 
should  certainly  object  very  vigorously  to  her  presentation  of  the 
subject,  as  being  highly  unfair,  untruthful,  and  in  fact  malignant. 
But  the  spirit  of  her  work  is  just  the  opposite  of  this.  She  dis- 
cusses in  a  remarkably  dispassionate  manner  the  nature,  situation, 
surroundings,  prospects,  and  tendencies  of  womankind  generally, 
and  it  is  quite  possible  that  she  admits  too  much.  Perhaps,  if 
she  had — " 

"Excuse  me  for  interrupting  you,  Mr.  Notion,  but  you  must 
be  aware  that  you  are  not  answering  my  question.  You  are 
evading  it  in  the  most  palpable  way.  You  are  fighting  for  time. 
In  doing  this  you  are  making  a  very  fine  display  of  the  boasted 
candor  of  men.  I  did  not  ask  you  what  you  thought  of  the 
book,  but  simply  whether  you  indorsed  the  accusations  which 
that  woman  has  seen  fit  to  make  against  women  generally. 
Please  answer  the  question. ' ' 

"Your  question,  my  dear,  is  one  which  does  not  admit  of 
either  a  directly  affirmative  or  negative  reply.  Her  concessions, 
or  accusations,  as  you  prefer  to  term  them,  are  numerous.  With 
some  I  might  agree.  From  others  I  might  dissent.  Still  others 
might  receive  only  my  partial  approval." 

"Well,  sir,  as  you  decline  to  answer  my  question  with  a 
simple  yes  or  no,  I  shall  gratify  your  desire  for  definiteness,  and 


88  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

be  just  as  specific  as  you  could  possibly  wish.  As  you  prefer  to 
consider  the  points  seriatim,  I  -will  take  them  up  in  that  way. 
Miss  Muloch,  according  to  your  version  of  her  book,  makes  no 
less  than  eighteen  positive  statements,  nearly  all  of  which  reflect 
more  or  less  upon  my  sex.  She  says  first  that  woman  is  the 
weaker  vessel.  If  she  means  bodily,  I  grant  it;  but  I  emphat- 
ically deny  that  woman  is  any  weaker  than  man  in  the  mental 
and  moral  spheres.  Then  she  affirms  that  the  sexes  are  not 
equal.  If  by  this  she  intends  to  assert  that  woman  is  in  any 
sense  inferior  to  man,  I  again  take  issue  with  her.  But  I  am 
forgetting  myself,  and  talking  when  I  ought  to  be  listening  to 
you.  You  have  already  expressed  yourself  on  this  question  of 
comparative  strength.  I  should  now  like  to  hear  your  views  as 
to  the  equality  of  the  sexes. ' ' 

"Matilda,  I  desire  at  the  outset  to  be  distinctly  understood  as 
conceding  not  only  the  equality  but  the  superiority  of  woman. 
Your  sphere  is  so  much  more  exalted  than  ours  that  I  pro- 
test whenever  I  see  any  tendency  on  your  part  to  seek  a  lower 
level,  and  put  yourself  on  the  same  groveling  plane  with  man." 

"Tush,  man,  that  is  a  mere  platitude,  empty  sound,  a  verbal 
vacuum,  so  to  speak!  You  say  in  one  breath  that  we  are  weak, 
vain,  foolish,  and  unprincipled,  and  in  the  next  that  we  are 
paragons  of  excellence,  so  lifted  up  that  you  can  only  stand 
before  us  in  silent  reverence,  and  look  up  to  us  with  veneration 
and  almost  adoration.  Please  be  a  little  more  consistent,  and 
tell  me  wherein  the  superiority  of  my  sex  consists." 

"I  have  already  done  so,  darling.  I  have  admitted  that 
women  were  purer  and  more  loving  than  men,  and  I  have  repeat- 
edly told  you  that  their  nature  was  especially  adapted  to  the 
functions  which  it  wras  their  highest  privilege  to  perform;  that 
they  were  fitted  in  every  way  to  make  home  happy,  to  rear  the 
young,  and  in  the  privacy  of  their  own  families  to  create  a  public 
sentiment  for  righteousness  that  would  prove  irresistible  when 
brought  directly  to  bear  against  the  vices  and  abuses  of  our  age. ' ' 

' '  All  right,  sir,  I  suppose  I  must  be  content  with  these  airy 
abstractions  and  iridescent  generalities;  but  again  I  ask  you, 
What  do  you  think  of  the  equality  of  the  sexes  in  the  world 
where  we  live,  in  the  prosaic  matters  of  every-day  life  ? ' ' 

' '  With  that  diffidence,  Matilda,  which,  as  you  are  well  aware, 
is  one  of  my  most  prominent  characteristics,  I  prefer  to  quote 
from  great  men  and  women  in  reply  to  your  question.  Mirabeau, 


SEX    DIFFERENCES.  89 

in  his  celebrated  speech  on  public  education,  said:  'Man  and 
woman  play  an  entirely  different  part  in  nature,  and  they  could 
not  play  the  same  part  in  the  social  state;  the  eternal  fitness  of 
things  only  made  them  move  towards  one  common  goal  by  assign- 
ing to  them  distinct  and  separate  places.  ...  To  take 
these  modest  beings  whose  maidenly  reserve  gives  a  charm  to  the 
domestic  circle,  where  all  their  lovable  qualities  expand  to  per- 
fection; to  place  them  among  men  and  affairs;  to  expose  them  to 
the  perils  of  a  life  which  they  can  not  learn  to  support  except 
by  distorting  their  physical  constitution— -this  is  but  to  obliterate 
that  exquisite  sensibility  which,  so  to  speak,  constitutes  their 
essence,  and  becomes  the  guarantee  of  their  aptitude  for  the 
fulfilment  of  those  private  functions  which  a  good  social  scheme 
has  assigned  to  them.  It  is  to  confound  everything;  it  is  by 
vain  prerogatives  to  flatter  them  into  losing  sight  of  those 
advantages  by  which  they  might  beautify  their  existence;  it  is 
to  degrade  them  in  our  eyes  and  in  their  own;  it  is,  in  a  word, 
to  promise  them  sovereignty  and  rob  them  of  their  empire.  No 
doubt  woman  ought  to  reign,  but  on  the  hearth,  in  the  home; 
she  should  reign  there,  and  there  only;  everywhere  else  she  is 
out  of  place. ' '  Mr.  Notion  looked  at  his  wife  with  an  air  of 
triumph,  and  exclaimed,  "This  is  a  quotation  from  Mirabeau's 
paper  called  '  Travail  sur  I' Education  Publique,'  which  was 
published  by  Cabanis  in  1791." 

Mrs.  Notion  laughed,  and  said:  "A  pretty  pass  you  must  have 
come  to  when  you  are  compelled  to  go  to  Europe  in  point  of 
space,  and  to  the  last  century  in  point  of  time,  to  find  an  argu- 
ment in  favor  of  your  pet  theories.  But  I  can  match  your  quo- 
tation, for  De  Goncourt,  also  a  Frenchman,  and  a  contemporary 
of  Mirabeau's,  said:  'Woman  is  the  principle  that  governs,  the 
reason  that  directs,  the  voice  that  commands.  She  is  the  uni- 
versal, fatal  cause,  the  origin  of  events,  the  source  of  things. 
From  one  end  of  the  century  to  the  other,  the  government  of 
woman  is  the  sole  government  to  be  seen  and  felt,  having  the 
steadiness  of  purpose,  and  the  spring,  the  reality,  and  the  activity 
of  power.'  There,  I  take  it  that  that  completely  offsets  your 
little  declamation  from  Mirabeau." 

"All  right,  Matilda,  I  will  come  to  our  own  country,  and 
quote  from  an  opinion  rendered  by  Chief  Justice  Ryan,  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Wisconsin,  in  1875.  That  eminent  jurist 
says:  'The  law  of  nature  destines  and  qualifies  the  female  sex 


90  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

for  the  bearing  find  nurture  of  the  children  of  our  race,  and  for 
the  custody  of  the  homes  of  the  world,  and  their  maintenance  in 
love  and  honor.  And  all  livelong  callings  of  women  inconsistent 
with  these  radical  and  sacred  duties  of  their  sex^  .  .  .  are 
departures  from  the  order  of  nature.'  In  another  part  of  the 
opinion  from  which  I  quote,  he  says:  'The  peculiar  qualities  of 
womanhood,  its  gentle  graces,  its  quick  sensihility,  its  tender  sus- 
ceptibility, its  purity,  its  delicacy,  its  emotional  impulses,  its  sub- 
ordination of  hard  reason  to  sympathetic  feeling,  are  surely  not 
qualities  for  forensic  strife.  Nature  has  tempered  woman  as  little 
for  the  juridical  conflicts  of  the  court-room  as  for  the  physical 
conflicts  of  the  battle  field.  Womanhood  is  moulded  for  gentler 
and  better  things.' ' 

Mrs.  Notion  smiled  disdainfully,  and  retorted:  "Judge  Ryan 
may  be  an  eminent  jurist,  but  I  do  not  like  his  style.  He  may 
leap  in  his  law,  but  he  limps  in  his  logic,  and  the  sentiments 
which  you  quote  from  him  reflect  much  more  credit  on  his 
imagination  than  his  knowledge  of  the  subject  which  he  presumes 
to  discuss  with  such  an  air  of  authority.  But  let  me  quote  from 
Mr.  Mason's  book  on  'Woman's  Share  in  Primitive  Culture,'  to 
which  I  referred  in  one  of  our  previous  talks.  Mr.  Mason  has 
given  the  subject  thorough  investigation,  and  knows  whereof  he 
speaks.  He  says:  'If  women  now  sit  on  thrones,  if  the  most 
beautiful  painting  in  the  world  is  of  a  mother  and  her  child,  if 
the  image  of  a  woman  crowns  the  dome  of  the  American  capitol, 
if  in  allegory  and  metaphor,  and  painting  and  sculpture  the 
highest  ideals  are  women,  it  is  because  they  have  a  right  to  be 
there.  By  all  their  drudgery  and  patience,  by  all  their  suffering 
and  kindness,  they  have  earned  their  right  to  be  there.'  In 
another  place  he  says:  'Life  is  now  longer  than  it  was,  and 
women  live  longer  than  men.  There  is  at  present  a  great 
awakening  among  women  as  to  their  own  attributes  and  capa- 
bilities. They  are  seriously  inquiring  for  the  roads  that  will 
conduct  them  to  their  largest  and  noblest  development.'  ' 

"I  fully  agree  with  Mr.  Mason  in  the  views  which  you  quote 
from  hin:,  my  dear;  but  I  fail  to  see  what  bearing  they  have 
upon  the  equality  of  the  sexes.  Just  listen  to  the  wise  words  of 
a  woman,  Mrs.  Kate  Tupper  Galpin,  of  California.  I  quote 
from  her  address  on  the  'Kthical  Influence  of  Woman  in  Educa- 


SEX   DIFFERENCES.  91 

tion,'  delivered  at  the  World's  Congress  of  representative  women, 
held  in  Chicago,  in  1893:  'While  woman  has  this  early  training 
of  the  child,  and  does  it  with  her  might,  she  is  a  queen.  She 
has  scope,  indeed,  for  the  employment  of  every  conceivable 
faculty  of  the  mind  and  soul.  Education  can  not  set  her  above 
this  work.  Talents  of  the  loftiest  order  can  not  exempt  her  from 
it,  if  she  has  assumed  the  duties  of  maternity.  Anything  else 
she  attempts  or  performs  must  be  subsidiary  to  it.  Awful  would 
be  any  changes  in  her  social  status  compelling  or  permitting  her 
to  delegate  her  high  office  to  any  other  hands.  No  conceivable 
advantage  to  woman  can  compensate  her  for  the  loss  of  the  inner 
life  of  that  holiest  of  holies — her  home.  It  would  profit  her 
little,  although  she  gained  the  whole  world  of  fortune  and  fame, 
if  she  could  not  reply  worthily,  with  the  approval  of  her  soul, 
to  the  searching  summons,  "Where  is  the  flock  that  I  have 
given  thee,  the  beautiful  flock?"  What  do  you  think  of  those 
sentiments,  Matilda ? ' ' 

"Like  you,  I  can  not  see  their  bearing  upon  the  question  of 
the  equality  of  the  sexes.  The  lady  whom  you  quote  says  some 
good  things  about  woman's  calling,  although  I  think  she  greatly 
exaggerates  the  responsibility  and  privilege  of  maternity  and 
child  care.  It  strikes  me  that  paternity  involves  just  as  much  of 
an  obligation  to  care  for  and  train  the  children  as  does  maternity. 
But,  as  you  have  seen  fit  to  quote  from  the  proceedings  of  the 
Woman's  Congress,  I  shall  imitate  your  example,  and  call  your 
attention  to  the  utterances  of  Helen  H.  Gardener,  of  New  York, 
addressed  to  that  same  body  of  representative  women.  She  says: 
'The  fact  is  simply  and  only  this,  the  arrogance  of  sex  power 
and  perversion  is  now  so  thoroughly  ingrained  that  man  really 
believes  himself  to  be  by  divine  right  the  human  race,  and  that 
woman  is  his  perquisite.  He  has  no  universal  language.  He 
thinks  in  the  language  of  sex;  but,  more  than  this,  and  worse 
than  this,  he  insists  upon  no  one  being  allowed  to  think  in  the 
language  of  humanity,  and  to  translate  that  thought  into  action.' 
Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton  gives  expression  to  the  following  weighty 
ideas:  'Our  civilization  to-day  is  simply  masculine;  everything  is 
by  force  and  violence  and  war,  and  will  be  until  the  feminine 
element  is  fully  recognized,  and  has  equal  po\\cr  in  the  regulation 


92  DOMESTIC    DUKI.s. 

of  Iiuiuaii  affairs.  Then  we  shall  substitute  co-operation  for 
competition,  and  persuasion  for  coercion.  Then  we  shall  have 
everywhere — 

"Two  heads  in  council,  two  beside  the  hearth, 
Two  in  the  tangled  business  of  the  world, 
Two  in  the  liberal  offices  of  life, 
Two  plummets  dropped  for  one,  to  sound 
The  abyss  of  science,  and  the  secrets  of  the  mind." 

' '  Matilda,  I  wonder  that  a  woman  of  your  sound  sense  would 
be  willing  to  repeat  such  silly  and  unwholesome  sentiments  as 
those  expressed  by  the  two  women  whose  names  you  have  men- 
tioned. Surely  you  do  not  indorse  their  wild  vagaries." 

"I  do,  and  most  emphatically.  Women  are  the  equals  of 
men  in  every  way,  and  demand  the  universal  recognition  of  that 
fact." 

"I  beseech  you,  my  dear,  do  not  accept  Mrs.  Stanton  as  a 
guide,  unless  you  are  prepared  to  depart  radically  from  the  path 
of  true  Christianity,  and  to  declare  war  upon  the  holiest  tradi- 
tions and  instincts  of  your  sex.  Mrs.  Stautou  is  one  of  the 
leaders  in  the  Woman's  Bible  movement.  She  and  about  twenty 
other  congenial  spirits  are  engaged  in  the  task  of  preparing  a 
woman's  edition  of  the  Bible,  in  which  all  passages  of  the  Word 
of  God  relative  to  woman  are  made  the  subject  of  special  com- 
ment. Mrs.  Stanton  comments  copiously  on  Numbers  12:1-15. 
Among  other  things  she  says:  'It  is  rather  remarkable,  if  Moses 
was  as  meek  as  he  is  represented  in  the  third  verse,  that  he  should 
have  penned  that  strong  assertion  of  his  own  innate  modesty. 
.  Speaking  of  the  punishment  of  Miriam,  Clarke  in  his 
commentaries  says  it  is  probable  that  Miriam  was  chief  in  this 
mutiny;  hence  she  was  punished,  while  Aaron  was  spared.  A 
mere  excuse  for  man's  injustice;  had  he  been  a  woman  he  would 
have  shared  the  same  fate.  The  real  reason  was  that  Aaron  uas 
a  priest.  Had  he  been  smitten  with  leprosy,  his  sacred  office 
would  have  suffered,  and  the  priesthood  fallen  into  disrepute. 
As  women  are  supposed  to  have  no  character  or  sacred  office,  it 
is  :il  ways  safe  to  punish  them  to  the  full  extent  of  the  law.  So 
Miriam  was  not  only  afflicted  with  leprosy,  but  also  shut  out  of 
the  camp  for  seven  days.  One  would  think  that  potential  mother- 
hood should  make  women  as  a  class  as  sacred  as  the  priesthood. 
In  common  parlance  we  have  much  finespun  theorizing  on  the 
exalted  office  of  the  mother,  her  immense  influence  in  moulding 


SEX    DIFFERENCES.  93 

the  character  of  her  sons ;  ' '  the  hand  that  rocks  the  cradle  rules 
the  world,"  etc.  But  in  creeds  and  codes,  in  constitutions  and 
scriptures,  in  prose  and  verse,  we  do  not  see  these  lofty  paeans 
recorded  or  verified  in  living  facts.  As  a  class,  women  were 
treated  among  the  Jews  as  an  inferior  order  of  beings,  just  as 
they  are  to-day  in  all  civilized  nations.  And  now,  as  then,  men 
claim  to  be  guided  by  the  will  of  God.  ...  If  Miriam 
had  helped  to  plan  the  journey  to  Canaan,  it  would  no  doubt 
have  been  accomplished  in  forty  days,  instead  of  wandering 
round  like  gypsies  for  forty  years.  With  her  counsel  in  the 
cabinet,  the  people  might  have  enjoyed  peace  and  prosperity, 
cultivating  the  arts  and  sciences,  and  not  always  making  war  on 
other  tribes  with  burnt-offerings  to  their  gods.'  Matilda,  what 
do  you  think  of  the  woman  who  is  capable  of  such  talk  as  this  ?  ' ' 

' '  My  reply  to  your  question,  Ned,  is  simply  this,  that,  while  I 
do  not  indorse  all  of  Mrs.  Stanton' s  ideas,  and  feel  that  she 
speaks  rather  irreverently  of  Holy  Writ,  I  still  admire  her  great 
ability,  and  the  courage  with  which  she  exposes  the  injustice, 
cruelty,  and  deception  of  man." 

"The  chief  trouble  with  Mrs.  Stanton  and  all  of  her  ilk," 
exclaimed  Mr.  Notion  with  some  asperity,  ' '  is  that  they  totally 
ignore  the  rock  from  which  they  were  hewn,  the  foundation  upon 
which  they  stand,  and  refuse  to  recognize  the  fact  that  to  the 
principles  of  Christianity,  though  only  partially  applied  in  any 
country  in  the  world,  they  owe  the  liberty  and  high  con- 
sideration which  they  enjoy  to-day  throughout  Christendom. 
But  perhaps  you  would  like  to  hear  some  more  from  Mrs. 
Stanton." 

"Yes,  indeed,  Edward,  I  should  keenly  enjoy  listening  to 
anything  which  emanates  from  her  brilliant  intellect." 

"On  the  occasion  of  the  celebration  of  her  eightieth  birthday 
not  long  since,  she  made  a  long  address,  which  included  the  fol- 
lowing rather  startling  paragraphs:  ' The  other  thought  I  would 
emphasize  to-night,  is  the  next  step  to  be  taken  in  our  march  to 
freedom.  We  must  now  make  the  same  demands  of  the  Church 
that  we  have  made  of  the  State  during  the  last  fifty  years,  for 
the  same  rights,  privileges,  and  immunities  that  man  enjoys. 

"'First.  We  must  see  that  the  canon  laws,  Mosaic  Code, 
Scriptures,  prayer-books,  and  liturgies  be  purged  of  all  invidious 
distinctions  of  sex,  of  all  false  teaching  as  to  woman's  origin, 
character,  and  destiny. 


1)4  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

' '  '  Second.  We  must  demand  an  equal  place  in  the  offices  of 
the  church  as  pastors,  elders,  deacons;  an  equal  voice  in  the 
creeds,  discipline,  in  all  business  matters,  and  in  the  synods, 
conferences,  and  general  assemblies. 

"'Third.  We  must  insist  that  all  unworthy  reflections  on 
the  sacred  character  of  the  mother  of  the  race,  such  as  the  alle- 
gory of  her  creation  and  fall,  and  Paul's  assumptions  as  to  her 
social  status,  be  expunged  from  our  church  literature.  Such 
sentiments  can  not  inspire  the  rising  generation  with  respect  for 
their  mothers. 

' ' '  Fourth.  We  must  demand  that  the  pulpit  be  no  longer 
desecrated  with  men  who  read  these  invidious  passages  of  Scrip- 
ture,-and  preach  from  texts  which  teach  the  subordination  of 
one-half  the  human  race  to  the  other.' 

"Don't  you  think  it  strange,  Matilda,  in  view  of  this,  that 
the  men  who  most  highly  respect  their  mothers,  wives,  sisters, 
and  daughters,  are  just  those  who  believe  the  Bible  accounts  of 
woman's  share  in  bringing  about  both  the  fall  and  redemption 
of  humanity  ?  ' ' 

"Well,  really,  Ned,  I  do  think  Mrs.  Stanton  goes  too  far  in 
her  sweeping  denunciations  of  existing  codes,  creeds,  customs,  and 
constitutions  as  being  grossly  unfair  to  the  female  half  of  the 
human  race.  Her  opinions,  however,  are  her  own,  courageously 
expressed,  and  hence  entitled  to  respect.  I  as  an  independent 
woman,  differ  from  her  in  many  things,  but  I  do  say  that  Paul 
goes  entirely  too  far  in  some  of  his  epistles  in  placing  women  in 
absolute  subjection  to  their  husbands.  This  is  especially  true  of 
the  last  few  verses  in  the  fifth  chapter  of  his  letter  to  the 
Ephesiaus.  I  can  not  concur  in  the  view  that  women  are  the 
vassals  and  men  the  lords,  irrespective  of  all  questions  of  individ- 
ual strength,  ability,  virtue,  and  wisdom.  Nor  do  I  approve  of 
that  part  of  the  marriage  service  which  makes  us  promise  to 
1  love,  honor,  and  obey'  our  husbands.  It  is  getting  to  be  quite 
a  common  thing  among  young  women  now  to  refuse  to  make  the 
promise  of  obedience,  and,  if  I  were  to  be  married  again,  I  should 
certainly  decline  to  take  any  such  vow." 

' '  It  would  make  very  little  practical  difference,  dear,  for  as  a 
matter  of  fact  you  have  consistently  refused  to  obey  me,  and  I 
have  been  the  spouse  who  has  really  been  in  subjection.  I 
undertake  to  sav  that  a  large  majority  of  the  married  men  in 
America  are  more  or  less  completely  subdued  by  their  wives, 


SEX    DIFFERENCES.  95 

cither  by  clever  tactics,  sheer  force  of  will,  or  a  persistent  course 
of  scolding,  nagging,  sulking,  and  teasing.  There  is  Mr.  Meek- 
niau,  for  example,  who  takes  his  orders  from  his  wife  as  unquestion- 
ingly,  and  obeys  them  as  implicitly,  as  any  soldier  possibly  could 
the  commands  of  his  superior  officer.  He  cowers  visibly  beneath 
her  angry  glance,  winces  uncomplainingly  when  she  chides  him 
crossly,  and  never  thinks  for  a  moment  either  in  public  or  private 
of  asserting  his  dignity,  self-respect,  and  mauhoood.  And  Mr. 
Meanheart  goes  to  bed  when  his  wife  tells  him  to,  and  that,  mind 
you,  when  the  order  is  given  in  the  hearing  of  strangers.  Mr. 
Fearmuch,  another  of  these  wife- worn  gentlemen,  on  one  occasion 
had  the  temerity  to  try  to  listen  to  a  conversation  between  his 
better  half  and  another  woman  while  the  trio  were  walking  on  the 
beach  at  Santa  Cruz,  in  this  state.  This  auditory  effort  on  his 
part  was  objectionable  to  his  gentle  spouse,  who  peremptorily 
ordered  him  '  to  the  rear, '  and  of  course  he  instantly  and  unmur- 
muringly  obeyed.  Now  I  want  to  know,  Matilda,  whether  you 
approve  of  that  sort  of  thing.  ' ' 

"No,  indeed,"  replied  Mrs.  Notion.  "I  despise  a  man  who 
permits  himself  to  be  treated  in  that  way.  But  you  have  no 
reason  to  complain,  for  you  are  well  aware  that  you  have  always 
been  the  master  of  this  household.  Besides,  I  do  not  think  you 
correctly  state  the  proportion  of  '  hen-pecked '  husbands.  There 
are  a  few,  I  acknowledge,  but  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases  the 
men  are  the  tyrants  and  the  women  the  slaves.  What  I  advocate 
is  a  dual  head  to  the  family,  and  no  lordly  chieftainship  of  either 
husband  or  wife.  Let  me  quote  from  the  paper  of  Dr.  Elizabeth 
Gary  Anderson :  '  Women  in  the  ministry  also  exert  a  special 
influence  in  setting  aside  those  offensive  marriage  customs  which 
are  a  relic  of  a  time  when  woman  was  really  given  away,  was  not 
recognized  as  an  independent  human  being,  but  was  transferred 
from  the  guardianship  of  her  father  to  that  of  her  husband. 
AVhen  entering  into  the  most  sacred  relationship  of  life,  where 
man  and  woman  should  stand  side  by  side  as  equals,  whatever 
detracts  in  any  way  from  dignity  and  sweet  sincerity  should  be 
put  aside.  The  bride  should  not  be  given  away,  nor  asked  to 
promise  to  obey,  for  the  promise,  if  sincere,  means  subordination, 
and  certainly  there  should  be  no  idle  forms,  no  meaningless 
promises  of  any  kind.  The  whole  service  should  symbolize  a 
voluntary,  sacred  union  of  equals,  for,  in  view  of  the  settled  influ- 
ence of  outward  forms  upon  human  thought  and  feeling,  whatever 


96  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

tends  to  ennoble  the  marriage  service,  tends  to  ennoble  marriage, 
and  thus  to  uplift  and  purify  humanity.'  Don't  you  think,  dear, 
that  that  is  a  true  sentiment,  beautifully  expressed  ?  ' ' 

"Frankly,  Matilda,  I  do  not.  While  the  language  is  good, 
the  ideas  are  bad,  and  avowedly  antagonistic  to  the  plain  and 
unmistakable  teachings  of  Scripture,  as  well  as  to  those  of  science 
and  history.  And  right  here  let  me  reenforce  what  I  have  to 
say  with  a  few  quotations.  Mrs.  Jameson,  a  lady  fully  as  fair- 
minded  and  candid  as  Miss  Muloch,  says:  '  The  intellect  of 
woman  bears  the  same  relationship  to  that  of  man  as  her  physical 
organization;  it  is  inferior  in  power  and  different  in  kind.' 
Napoleon  said:  'There  is  no  more  fatal  misfortune  for  a  man 
than  to  allow  himself  to  be  governed  by  his  wife ;  in  such  a  case 
he  is  neither  himself  nor  his  wife;  he  is  simply  nothing. '  Paulina 
W.  Davis,  another  of  your  unprejudiced  sisters,  utters  the  follow- 
ing words  of  wisdom:  'Nature  does  not  teach  that  men  and 
women  are  equal,  but  only  that  they  are  unlike.'  Michelet  says: 
'  Woman's  happiness  consists  in  obeying;  she  objects  to  a  man 
who  yields  too  much.'  The  fact  is,  Matilda,  that  man  is  stronger 
than  woman,  and  where  an  irreconcilable  difference  exists  between 
them,  he  has  the  power  to  enforce  and  execute  his  will.  In 
every  society  there  must  be  a  court  of  last  appeal;  in  every  family 
there  must  be  a  head.  Naturally  man  takes  this  place,  and 
while  there  are  always  exceptions,  it  will  be  found  where  normal 
conditions  exist,  that  the  great  majority  of  men  are  stronger  both 
physically  and  mentally  than  the  great  majority  of  women.  The 
conditions  which  exist  at  the  present  time  in  this  country  are 
abnormal,  as  I  have  sought  to  show  in  our  previous  conversations, 
and  hence  it  follows  that  women  are  exercising  an  unnatural  and 
mischievous  power  in  most  of  the  homes  of  the  land.  They  have 
the  advantage  of  men  in  nearly  every  way,  in  the  privacy  of 
home,  in  the  courts,  in  society,  in  the  popular  amusements  of  the 
day,  in  new  religious  movements  such  as  the  Salvation  Army,  and 
in  all  such  unwholesome  substitutes  for  religion  as  Spiritualism, 
Theosophy,  Christian  Science,  etc.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  con- 
vict a  woman  for  the  murder  of  a  man,  and  in  any  sort  of  litiga- 
tion between  a  man  and  a  woman,  the  latter  has  a  marked 
advantage;  and  this,  too,  with  male  judges  and  juries.  Our 
divorce  laws  are  absolutely  unfair  in  their  extreme  tendency  to 
help  the  complaining  wife,  or  even  the  wife  who  is  a  respondent. 
The  man  who  is  so  unfortunate  as  to  become  involved  in  divorce 


SEX    DIFFERENCES.  97 

litigation,  may  bid  farewell  alike  to  his  children  and  his  property. 
The  former  are  almost  sure  to  be  awarded  to  the  care  and  custody 
of  their  mother,  who  will  so  fill  their  minds  with  prejudice  against 
him  that  the  occasional  visits  which  the  law  allows  him  to  pay 
them  will  be  seasons  of  mental  anguish  rather  than  times  of 
enjoyment.  The  latter  will  be  taken  to  a  great  extent  out  of  his 
control,  while,  if  he  has  no  property,  he  can  be  compelled  to 
support  his  wife  so  long  as  she  refrains  from  another  matrimonial 
venture.  The  women  monopolize  social  pleasures.  The  men  are 
too  busy  earning  money  to  go  into  society.  The  women  not  only 
constitute  the  vast  majority  of  the  audience  at  the  theater,  but  fill 
the  best  positions  on  the  stage.  Most  of  the  officers  in  the  Salva- 
tion Army  belong  to  your  sex,  and  nearly  all  the  Spiritualistic 
mediums  are  females.  In  fact,  women  are  crowding  into  the 
ministry,  and  the  Rev.  Ada  C.  Bowles,  a  Unitarian  minister, 
contributed  a  long  poem  to  the  Woman's  Congress  at  Chicago, 
one  of  the  stanzas  of  which  is  as  follows: — 

"  '  Else  up,  rise  up,  O  woman, 

No  longer  sit  at  ease; 
The  banner  of  thy  freedom 

Is  lifting  to  the  breeze. 
Be  ready  for  the  morning 

That  breaks  thy  long,  dark  night 
Of  ignorance  and  bondage, 

And  hail  the  coming  light.' 

' '  I  might  go  into  many  other  avenues  to  show  the  truth  of  my 
assertions,  but  I  shall  reserve  them  for  subsequent  conversations. 
The  real  fact  is  that  women  have  far  too  much  power  now,  and 
that  they  feel  the  lust  of  it,  and  cry  for  more.  Nothing  will 
suit  the  leaders  of  female  thought  but  the  complete  dominion  of 
the  universe.  Control  of  this  Avorld  will  not  suffice.  They  must 
occupy  the  throne  of  omnipotence,  and,  consequently,  many  of 
them  now  insist  that  motherhood  or  the  female  principle  is  an 
essential  part  of  Deity." 

' '  I  had  never  heard  of  that,  Ned.  Who  among  the  leading 
women  of  the  day  goes  so  far  as  to  claim  that  ? ' ' 

' '  I  will  quote  from  Oliva  Ann  Thayer,  of  New  York,  founder 
of  the  Order  of  Melchizedek.  In  the  course  of  an  address  at 
the  Woman's  Congress,  entitled  'The  Light  in  the  East,'  she 
said:  'In  the  third  and  the  eighth  chapters  of  Proverbs  is  given 
a  picture  of  the  female  principle  of  Deity,  and  as  we  uplift  our 
eyes  to  this  resplendent  Womanhood,  the  Motherhood  in  God, 
7 


98  DOMESTIC   nri:i,s. 

with  the  Fatherhood,  is  calling  on  us  as  no  other  voice  can  call, 
to  come  up  to  higher  work  for  woman.  It  calls  woman  to  a 
remarkable  destiny,  as  joined  to  the  incarnated  Most  High,  to 
Christ  Jesus,  for  the  regeneration  of  the  race.  Following  this 
Hght  around  the  whole  world,  AVC  shall  become  blessed,  radiant, 
crowned  with  many  crowns.'  I  think,  Matilda,  that  I  have 
proved  my  assertion." 

' '  O  Ned,  I  feel  sure  you  have  put  a  wrong  construction  upon 
the  lady's  words!  Surely  she  does  not  intend  to  say  that  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  the  female  principle  of  Deity,  for  the  masculine 
form  of  the  personal  pronoun  '  he '  is  almost  invariably  applied 
in  the  Bible  to  the  Paraclete. ' ' 

"She  undoubtedly  does  intend  just  that  thing.  But  in  refresh- 
ing contrast  to  all  this  are  the  wise,  strong,  just  words  of  jliss 
Muloch :  '  Equally  blasphemous,  and  perhaps  even  more  harmful, 
is  the  outcry  about  the  "equality  of  the  sexes,"  the  frantic 
attempt  to  force  women,  many  of  whom  are  either  ignorant  of  or 
unequal  for  their  own  duties,  into  the  position  and  dutf.es  of  men. 
A.  pretty  state  of  matters  would  ensue!  Who  that  ever  listened 
for  two  hours  to  the  verbose,  confused  inanities  of  a  ladies'  com- 
mittee, would  immediately  go  and  give  his  vote  for  a  female 
House  of  Commons?  or  who,  on  the  receipt  of  a  lady's  letter  of 
business — I  speak  of  the  average — would  henceforth  desire  to 
have  our  courts  of  justice  stocked  with  matronly  lawyers,  and 
our  colleges  thronged  by  "sweet  girl  graduates  with  their  golden 
hair"?  As  for  finance,  in  its  various  branches — if  you  pause 
to  consider  the  extreme  difficulty  there  always  is  in  balancing 
Mrs.  Smith's  housekeeping-book,  or  Miss  Smith's  quarterly 
allowance,  I  think,  my  dear  Paternal  Smith,  you  need  not  be 
much  afraid  lest  this  loud  acclaim  for  "women's  rights"  should 
ever  end  in  pushing  you  from  your  stools,  in  counting-house, 
college,  or  elsewhere.  No;  equality  of  the  sexes  is  not  in  the 
nature  of  things.  Man  and  woman  were  made  for,  and  not  like 
one  another.  One  only  "right"  we  have  to  assert  in  common 
with  mankind — and  that  is  as  much  in  our  own  hands  as  theirs — 
the  right  of  having  something  to  do.'  Pretty  well  put,  isn't  it, 
my  dear?" 

"No,  sir,  I  don't  think  so.  Miss  Muloch,  like  many  other 
foolish  women,  takes  delight  in  underrating  her  own  sex,  and 
trying  in  that  way  to  please  the  men.  But  the  hard,  prosaic  facts 
of  every-day  life  give  the  lie  to  her  assertions.  Women  are  the 


SEX    DIFFERENCES.  99 

best  clerks  and  most  successful  bookkeepers,  and  are  in  constantly 
greater  demand  by  merchants  and  other  heads  of  large  establish- 
ments. They  are  clean,  honest,  steady,  and  reliable,  and  do  not 
shirk  their  work.  Their  organizations,  such  as  missionary  socie- 
ties, sewing  circles,  ladies'  aid  societies,  boards  of  relief,  and 
many  other  associations,  are  as  well  conducted  as  any  of  which 
men  have  the  charge.  They  are  claiming  education  as  their 
birthright,  and  the  superiority  of  the  girls  to  the  boys  in  the 
common  schools  has  passed  into  a  proverb,  while  the  young  ladies 
have  forced  their  way  into  nearly  every  college  and  university  in 
the  land,  and  are  graduating  in  large  numbers,  and  with  high 
honors.  Even  Cambridge  and  Oxford,  with  all  their  moss-grown 
conservatism,  have  felt  the  pressure  of  female  progress,  and  col- 
leges for  women  have  sprung  into  existence  in  the  very  shadow 
of  those  ancient  institutions.  I  am  very  glad  you  quoted  those 
statements  from  Miss  Muloch,  for  I  have  the  facts  at  hand  to 
completely  disprove  every  one  of  them,  and  to  demonstrate,  not 
only  that  women  are  capable  of  doing  all  kinds  of  work,  physical, 
mental,  moral,  and  spiritual,  as  well  as  men,  but  that  they  are 
doing  it  in  constantly  increasing  numbers." 

"I  shall  be  much  pleased  to  hear  your  proofs,  my  dear,  and 
to  discuss  the  matter  with  you,  but  as  such  discussion  will  open 
up  another  branch,  of  our  subject,  I  would  suggest  that  we  bring 
this  dialogue  to  a  close. ' ' 


Mr.  Notion  Institutes  a  Comparison  between  the 

Conditions  of  Women  in  Heathen  and 

Christian  Lands. 

"A  good  wife  is  heaven's  last,  best  gift  to  man, — his  gem  of  many 
virtues,  his  casket  of  jewels;  her  voice  is  sweet  music,  her  smile  his 
brightest  day,  her  kiss  the  guardian  of  his  innocence,  her  amis  the  pale 
of  his  safety,  her  industry  his  surest  wealth,  her  economy  his  safest 
steward,  her  lips  his  faithful  counselors,  her  bosom  the  softest  pillow  of 
his  cares." — Jeremy  Taylor. 

"I  desire,  Matilda,  before  we  proceed  with  the  discussion  of 
women  in  the  industrial  sphere,  to  call  your  attention  to  what 
woman  was  before  Christianity  ameliorated  her  condition,  and 
what  she  is  now  in  countries  beyond  the  reach  of  Christian 
influences.  I  think,  in  view  of  the  proposed  woman's  edition  of 
the  Bible,  and  repudiation  of  everything  in  the  Scriptures  which 
reflects  in  any  way  either  upon  the  female  sex  as  a  whole  or 
upon  any  of  its  members,  that  it  will  be  very  profitable  for  us  to 
reflect  a  while  on  the  lot  of  women  in  lands  where  the  Bible  is 
not  the  standard  of  belief  and  conduct. ' ' 

Mrs.  Notion  elevated  her  eyebrows  slightly,  and  with  a  resigned 
expression,  said:  "I  had  hoped  to  speak  this  evening  of  the 
success  of  women  in  the  different  trades  and  professions,  but  I 
shall  listen  patiently  to  what  you  have  to  say  in  the  direction 
indicated." 

"  Let  me  begin,  Matilda,  by  quoting  from  an  anonymous  work 
called  *  Satan  in  Society,'  the  author  of  which  says:  'Wherever 
woman  is  not  married  in  the  name  of  God,  she  sinks  into  the 
slave  and  the  merchandise  of  man.  AVe  challenge  the  facts  of 
history  in  proof  of  this.  Let  us  drag  them  forth.  It  was 
Lamech  who,  by  espousing  two  wives,  Adah  and  Zillah,  first 
attacked  the  divine  unity  of  marriage.  Theologians  agree  in 
condemning  most  especially  the  perpetrator  of  this  act,  and 
certainly  there  is  a  vast  difference,  in  the  moral  point  of  view, 
between  him  who  establishes  a  vicious  custom  and  him  who,  find- 
(100) 


WOMAN    IX    HEATHEN    AND    CHRISTIAN    LANDS.  101 

ing  it  established,  conforms  to  it.  So  by  some  Lamecli  is  termed 
''accursed,"  by  others  "an  adulterer."  St.  Jerome  says  that 
the  Deluge  punished  homicide  and  bigamy  at  the  same  time.  In 
this  connection  it  is  significant  to  reflect  that  Noah,  "a  just  man, 
and  perfect  in  his  generations, ' '  and  his  three  sons  as  well,  had, 
each  of  them,  but  one  wife.'  ' 

"In  that  respect,"  suggested  Mrs.  Notion,  "Lot  was  more 
exemplary  than  faithful  Abraham." 

"True,  Matilda,  but  let  me  read  a  little  further  from  this 
author,  who,  after  describing  the  progress  of  polygamy,  even 
among  the  chosen  people,  continues:  'It  will  readily  be  con- 
ceived that,  in  such  an  order  of  things,  the  condition  of  woman 
must  have  been  a  very  unhappy  one,  as  in  fact  it  was.  She  was 
bought  and  sold  like  the  beast  of  burden.  She  was  formally 
declared  inferior  by  the  civil  law,  which  invaded  her  most  tender 
susceptibilities.  Repudiation  Avas  tolerated  freely.'  In  another 
place  I  find  the  following  striking  description  of  the  condition  of 
woman  where  it  was  unalleviated  by  the  application  of  Christian 
principles:  'Among  the  Egyptians,  so  renowned  for  wisdom, 
polygamy  was  prohibited  only  to  the  priests.  Marriages  between 
brothers  and  sisters  were  freely  allowed.  In  public  processions 
the  most  gross  and  impure  emblems  were  ostentatiously  paraded. 
Animals  the  most  lecherous  were  adored  as  divinities.  Practices 
too  indecent  for  recital,  too  horrible  to  believe  possible,  were  of 
constant  and  public  occurrence.  The  Phoenicians,  the  Armenians, 
the  Babylonians,  the  Assyrians,  the  Carthaginians,  the  Medes 
and  Persians,  the  Thracians, — all  had  laws  and  customs  relating  to 
woman  too  revolting  and  indecent  to  mention. '  ' 

"But  that  was  because  those  peoples  were  uncivilized,  and  not 
simply  because  they  had  no  written  revelation  from  God,"  sug- 
gested Mrs.  Notion. 

"Not  at  all,"  replied  her  husband;  "most  of  these  nations 
were  far  advanced  in  the  arts  and  BCJepeee,  and  many  of  them  had 
made  remarkable  industrial  and  intellectual  progress.  So  far  as 
it  is  possible  to  have  such  a  thing  as  civilization  apart  from 
Christianity,  they  were  highly  civilized.  The  author,  continuing 
his  description  of  these  terrible  customs,  says:  '  The  most  innocent 
of  these  were  the  burying  of  the  living  widow  with  the  body  of 
the  dead  husband,  the  sale  of  a  woman  for  a  pair  of  oxen. 
Throughout  Asia  the  same  abominations  were,  and  in  manv 
places  are  still,  customary.  Polygamy,  the  purchase  of  women, 


102  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

their  enslavement,  are  things  no  less  of  to-day  than  of  antiquity. 
But  that  which,  above  all,  proves  to  what  abjection  woman, 
deprived  of  Christianity,  can  fall,  how  completely  her  heart  can 
become  abased,  her  most  natural  sentiments  abolished,  is  that 
throughout,  from  the  Red  Sea  to  the  sources  of  the  Tigris  and  the 
Euphrates,  from  the  shores  of  Asia  Minor  to  the  depths  of  India, 
the  stones  of  the  altars  are  bathed  with  human  blood,  the  idols 
devour  the  quivering  flesh  of  infants  offered  in  sacrifice. '  ' 

' '  But  I  notice, ' '  said  Mrs.  Notion,  ' '  that  you  say  nothing,  or 
rather  read  nothing,  about  Greece  and  Rome,  and  they  were  the 
greatest  and  most  advanced  of  ancient  nations  in  every  way. 
You  would  not  undertake  to  prove  that  their  women  were  so 
badly  treated,  or  so  lightly  esteemed. ' ' 

' '  I  am  glad  you  mentioned  them,  my  dear,  for  they  are  no 
exception  to  the  rule  that  Christianity  alone  is  the  protector  and 
champion  of  woman.  In  those  classic  lands  adultery,  polygamy, 
incest,  infanticide,  legal  prostitution,  and  promiscuity  of  the 
sexes,  existed  in  the  midst  of  a  cultivation  and  intelligence  unpar- 
alleled either  before  or  since  that  time.  In  Sparta  woman  was 
the  prostitute  of  the  republic,  while  in  Corinth  she  was  a  volup- 
tuous courtezan,  and  a  thousand  harlots  officiated  as  the  priestesses 
in  the  temple  of  Venus.  In  Athens,  so  rich  in  glorious  memories. 
whose  history  is  so  indissolubly  associated  with  immortal  genius, 
so  interwoven  with  the  great  masters  of  literature,  statesmanship, 
philosophy,  and  art,  where  still  thickly  cluster  recollections  of 
Phidias  and  Praxiteles,  of  Pericles,  Alcibiades,  Thucydides,  of 
Socrates,  Plato,  and  Zeno,  how  wretched  was  woman's  lot!  The 
wives  of  the  citizens  were  kept  in  ignorance,  and  closely  confined 
to  their  homes,  the  slaves  of  their  lords  and  masters.  Demosthenes 
thus  defines  the  sexual  relations  of  the  Athenians:  'We  marry  in 
order  to  obtain  legitimate  children  and  a  faithful  warder  of  the 
house;  we  keep  concubines  as  servants  for  our  daily  attendance, 
but  we  seek  the  Hetrerse  for  love's  delight,'  Who  were  thex 
HetaeraB?  In  Athens  a  sumptuous  temple  was  dedicated  to  the 
goddess  Hettera?,  and  here  were  found  the  beautiful  and  accom- 
plished courtezans  whose  names  have  come  down  to  posterity  as 
the  intimates  of  the  great  men  of  Greece.  Here  were  Phryne, 
Aspasia,  Glyceria,  Cotytto,  Lais  of  Corinth,  Gnatlm>na,  Plangnne, 
Pinope,  Gnatone,  Theano,  and  multitudes  of  other  less-famed 
women  of  light  and  easy  virtue,  who  charmed  and  fascinated  the 
leaders  of  Greek  thought  and  action." 


WOMAN    IN    HEATHEN   AND   CHRISTIAN    LANDS.  103 

"Is  it  possible,  Edward,  that  the  gifted  Grecians,  whose  works 
we  still  admire,  should  have  sought  the  society  of  abandoned 
women  ? ' ' 

' '  There  is  not  the  least  doubt  of  it,  Matilda,  But  remember 
that  these  women  were  distinguished  by  rare  intelligence  and 
talent,  as  well  as  marvelous  beauty.  The  only  deficiency  was 
that  of  character.  The  chisel  of  Praxiteles  was  inspired  by 
Phryne,  and  the  marble  goddess  of  which  she  was  the  model 
received  the  prayers  and  incense  of  worship  upon  the  altars  of 
Greece.  Under  the  title  of  '  Popular  Venus, '  Cotytto  had  her 
altars  in  Athens  and  other  cities.  Aspasia,  who  was  finally 
espoused  by  Pericles,  directed  his  counsels,  and  decided  grave 
questions  of  peace  or  war.  The  painters  of  Sycion  sought  to 
perpetuate  upon  their  canvas  the  loveliness  of  Glyceria,  and 
Demosthenes,  the  orator  of  orators,  was  the  devoted  slave  of 
Lais." 

"  And  what  were  the  wives  of  these  men  doing  all  this  time?  " 
inquired  Mrs.  Notion. 

"Oh,  they  were  in  their  Gyna3ceum,  or  'woman-place,' 
occupied  with  the  tedious  and  prosaic  cares  of  children  and  the 
household,  and  entirely  incapable  of  appreciating  ^he  things 
which  interested  their  cultivated  and  brilliant  husbands." 

"But  the  Romans,  Edward,  were  brave  and  chivalrous,  and 
the  names  of  noble  Roman  matrons  have  come  down  to  us  as 
models  of  virtue,  fidelity,  and  patriotism.  Surely  the  Romans 
honored  and  revered  woman." 

"There  you  err,"  said  Mr.  Notion.  "The  Roman  husband 
was  the  pater  familiar,  and  as  such,  was  invested  with  absolute 
power  over  all  the  members  of  his  family;  and  wife,  children, 
slaves,  all  lived  and  enjoyed  themselves  by  his  suflerance,  for  by 
his  ipse  dixit  he  could  banish,  imprison,  or  kill  them.  Conjugal 
tyranny  was  carried  to  extremes,  and  the  husband  might  project 
his  authority  over  his  wife  beyond  the  grave  by  appointing  a 
guardian  for  her,  to  act  in  ca«e  of  his  death." 

"  But  I  have  always  understood,  Edward,  that  the  Romans 
were  a  virtuous  people,  both  men  and  women." 

"Yes,"  replied  Mr.  Notion,  "they  were  for  several  centuries; 
but  universal  dominion,  vast  wealth,  and  limitless  luxury  brought 
with  them  the  most  frightful  corruption.  To  quote  from  August 
Bebel,  in  his  'Woman  in  the  Past,  Present,  and  Future':  'With 
the  growing  power  and  wealth  of  Rome,  its  former  austere 


104  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

morality  disappeared  and  made  way  to  vices  and  excesses.  Home 
became  the  center  of  debauchery  and  sensual  refinements.  The 
number  of  public  brothels  increased,  while  at  the  same  time 
Greek  pederasty  grew  more  and  more  common  among  men. 
Celibacy  and  childlessness  became  more  frequent  in  the  ruling 
class,  and  Roman  ladies  avenged  themselves  by  having  their 
names  registered  in  the  lists  of  the  ^Ediles,  whose  duty  it  was  to 
superintend  prostitution,  as  a  means  of  avoiding  the  heavy  punish- 
ments of  adultery.'  Under  these  conditions  the  courtezans  flour- 
ished in  Rome  as  they  had  done  in  Greece,  and  such  women  as 
Lamia,  Chloe,  Vetusilla,  and  Ligella  were  famous  alike  for  their 
beauty  and  intelligence." 

' '  You  seem  to  be  under  the  impression, ' '  exclaimed  Mrs. 
Notion,  ' '  that  the  women  of  antiquity  had  no  rights  which  men 
were  bound  to  respect,  and,  while  this  has  been  too  true  in  the 
majority  of  cases,  the  fact  remains  that  in  many  nations  women 
were  the  ruling  sex,  and  that  they  are  dominant  to-day  in 
portions  of  the  earth  where  Christianity  is  unknown.  As  an 
instance  of  this  kind,  let  me  refer  you  to  the  Amazon  states,  which 
are  supposed  to  have  existed  in  ancient  times  in  Asia,  and  on  the 
shores  of  the  Black  Sea,  and  which  were  ruled  entirely  by  women. 
It  is  stated  on  reputable  authority  that  remnants  of  these  states 
existed  as  late  as  the  reign  of  Alexander  the  Great,  and  Diodorus 
informs  us  that  a  queen  of  the  Amazons,  named  Thalestris,  came 
to  Alexander's  camp  with  the  purpose  of  bearing  him  a  child. 
To-day  certain  tribes  in  the  interior  of  Africa  are  ruled  by 
women,  who  are  said  to  be  stronger  physically  than  the  men.  In 
one  Afghan  tribe  the  women  hunt  and  fight,  while  the  men  stay 
at  home  and  attend  to  domestic  affairs.  The  king  of  Ashantee, 
in  West  Africa,  and  the  king  of  Dahomey,  in  Central  Africa, 
have  body-guards  composed  of  women,  and  their  female  regiments 
are  distinguished  from  the  male  soldiers  by  their  greater  courage 
and  cruelty.  In  other  countries  the  ascendency  of  my  sex  is 
marked  by  the  fact  that  polyandry,  or  the  plurality  of  husbands, 
prevails.  This  is  the  custom  in  Thibet,  Ceylon,  the  Marquesas 
Isles,  and  in  the  Congo  and  Loango  territories.  Livingstone 
once  offered  one  of  Nyakoba's  men  a  hoe  to  be  his  guide,  which 
the  man  accepted,  and  went  to  show  his  wife.  Upon  his  return 
he  said  his  wife  would  not  let  him  go,  and  after  considerable 
chaffing  exclaimed,  '  Oh,  that  is  the  custom  in  these  parts — the 
wives  are  masters! '  ' 


WOMAN    IN    1IKATHEN   AND    CHRISTIAN    LANDS.  105 

' '  But  you  must  admit,  my  dear,  that  the  cases  of  which  you 
speak  are  exceptional;  that  the  entire  course  of  history,  where 
the  principles  of  Christianity  have  not  ameliorated  the  lot  of 
woman,  has  been  the  almost  universal  oppression  and  degrada- 
tion of  your  sex.  Sanger,  in  his  celebrated  work  on  the  '  History 
of  Prostitution,'  states  that  in  Babylon  a  law  existed  which 
required  every  virgin  to  make  at  least  one  pilgrimage  to  the 
temple  of  the  goddess  Mylitta,  and  there  to  surrender  herself  in 
honor  of  the  deity  to  the  licentious  embraces  of  the  men  who 
crowded  the  temple  precincts.  In  fact,  as  Mason,  one  of  your 
favorite  authors,  says:  ' She  was  the  original  burden-bearer,  and 
transported  freight  and  passengers  on  her  head,  back,  shoulders, 
and  arms.  An  Eskimo  woman  has  been  known  to  carry  a  stone 
weighing  300  pounds  for  20  yards.'  Even  in  many  so-called 
Christian  countries  women  are  much  less  favored  than  they  are 
in  America,  where  the  teachings  of  Christ  have  been  most  prac- 
tically applied  to  the  daily  problems  of  life,  and  where  the  weak 
are  most  helped  by  the  strong.  And  yet  it  is  here,  where  woman 
is  most  highly  honored  and  most  jealously  sheltered  by  men  from 
hardship,  suffering,  and  degradation,  that  she  is  loudest  in  her 
complaints  of  male  oppression,  most  fierce  in  her  denunciation  of 
male  tyranny,  and  most  obnoxious  in  her  criticism  of  the  treat- 
ment accorded  her  sex  by  the  institutions  and  teachings  of  Chris- 
tianity. In  contrast  with  the  situation  of  women  in  other  lands, 
their  lot  in  this  country  is  pleasant  indeed.  The  peasant  women 
of  Europe  to-day  carry  heavy  loads  in  knapsacks  upon  their 
backs,  and  pull  wagons  filled  with  produce.  Let  me  quote  from 
the  New  York  World  of  August  7,  1892,  with  reference  to  the 
working- women  of  Germany: 

"'The  life  of  the  poor  woman  who  picks  up  a  living  in 
Germany,  though  more  uncertain,  is  not  harder  than  that  of  the 
market  woman  in  Nuremberg,  who  hauls  a  hand-cart  as  big  as 
a  bed,  in  which  are  her  baby,  her  black  cherries,  and  a  small 
vegetable  garden.  When  she  applies  to  the  farmer  for  work  she 
has  no  choice  but  to  work.  She  fells  trees,  chops  wood,  hauls 
coal,  cleans  the  cattle-pens,  gives  the  fattened  hog  a  scrubbing 
when  he  needs  it,  oils  the  machinery,  puts  an  edge  on  whatever 
tools  she  uses  in  the  field,  and  performs  the  roughest  kinds  of 
stable  work.  In  the  city  the  woman  who  hires  out  by  the  day 
dues,  and  is  expected  to  do,  anything  and  everything.  She 
washes,  scrubs,  and  irons;  she  hauls  every  drop  of  water  that 


106  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

she  uses  from  the  fountain  or  neighboring  pump,  carrying  it  in 
a  tin  caii  from  five  to  eight  feet  tall  strapped  on  her  back;  she 
sweeps  the  stretch  of  cobblestone  paving  from  the  doorstep  to 
the  center  of  the  street.  Perhaps  the  most  distressing  figure  in 
the  rank  and  file  of  this  involuntary  servitude  is  a  woman — wife 
and  mother — of  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century,  toiling 
up  a  plank  to  the  top  of  a  building  in  course  of  construction, 
with  a  load  of  mortar  on  her  back.'  Two  women  hod-carriers 
in  Nuremberg  are  thus  described:  'They  arrive  at  the  tower  at 
six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  at  once  begin  their  labors.  The 
tin  in  which  the  mortar  is  carried  is  perhaps  eighteen,  inches  in 
diameter  at  its  greatest  width,  and  three  feet  deep.  By  means 
of  a  leather  strap  it  is  adjusted  to  the  shoulders.  Each  woman 
takes  the  shovel  in  her  own  hands,  fills  her  can,  slips  her  arm- 
through  the  strap,  shoulders  the  load,  plods  up  to  the  scaflbld 
where  the  masons  are  at  work,  and  unloads  her  burden  without 
assistance  of  any  kind.  It  all  seems  such  a  cruel  waste  of  good 
material — her  complexion  tanned  and  tough  as  Avhitleather,  her 
figure  robbed  of  every  line  of  grace  and  beauty,  her  poor,  willing 
hands  rough-grained,  gross,  and  callous  as  a  ploughman's,  and 
her  body  bent  like  the  pictured  slaves  in  the  galley.  She  wears 
a  hempen  suck  tied  about  her  waist  to  protect  the  shapeless  cotton 
dress,  and  a  melancholy  kerchief  tied  over  her  hetvd  to  shield  it 
from  the  broiling  sun;  a  pair  of  worthless  boots  cover  her  heavy 
feet,  and  the  luxury  of  stockings  neither  burdens  nor  bothers  her. 
Apparently  she  is  impervious  to  the  weather.  At  eight  o'clock 
the  men  rest.  The  women  do,  too,  after  they  have  brought  the 
tankards  of  beer  and  cut  the  bread  for  the  second  breakfast. 
At  noon  these  beasts  of  burden  Jay  down  their  mortar  cans, 
untie  their  aprons,  and  go  home  to  prepare  the  dinner  for  their 
husbands.  The  meal  over,  the  cottage  is  made  tidy,  and  at  two 
o'clock  they  are  back  at  the  building,  where  they  remain  until 
seven  o'clock,  toiling  along  the  plank  Avalk  and  straining  imder 
the  load  that  seems  so  cruelly  heavy  for  a  woman  living  in  this 
generation  to  bo  allowed  to  bear.  After  the  day's  work  she  has 
her  household  duties  to  perform.  Her  earnings  amount  to  five 
cents  an  hour.  If  there  is  a  daughter  at  home  to  provide  for  the 
creature  comforts  of  the  family,  the  mother  works  ten  hours  a 
day.  If  not,  the  law  restricts  her  employment  to  six  hours. 
But  in  either  instance  she  is  in  harness  between  6  A.  M.  ami 


WO.MAX    IX    JIKATIIKX    AXI)    CHUJSTIAX    LANDS.  107 

" Evidently,"  remarked  Mrs.  Notion,  "the  principles  of 
Christianity  have  not  been  successful  in  lifting  the  burdens  of  the 
women  whose  hard  lot  is  so  graphically  described  in  the  article 
which  you  have  just  read." 

"They  have  not  had  free  scope,  Matilda,  in  any  nation  in 
continental  Europe,  and  the  deplorable  condition  of  so  many 
millions  of  your  sex  in  France  and  Germany  to-day  is  to  be 
ascribed,  not  to  the  genius  of  Christianity,  but  rather  to  the  lack 
of  real  vital  godliness  in  those  lands,  so  plainly  evidenced  by 
their  worship  of  the  god  of  war  instead  of  the  Prince  of  Peace. 
But  let  me  quote  from  Pere  Lacordaire,  an  eloquent  French 
divine,  as  to  the  history  of  woman  outside  of  and  beyond  the 
pale  of  Christian  institutions:  'Man  has  accumulated  against  his 
companion  all  that  he  was  capable  of  inventing  of  hardships  and 
privations.  He  has  taken  her  captive;  he  has  covered  her  with 
a  veil;  lie  has  hidden  her  in  the  most  secluded  portion  of  the 
house,  as  a  mischievous  divinity  or  a  suspected  slave;  he  has 
contracted  her  feet  from  her  infancy,  to  render  her  incapable  of 
walking  and  of  carrying  her  heart  wheresoever  she  pleased;  he 
has  burdened  her,  like  a  servant,  with  the  most  painful  tasks; 
he  has  denied  her  the  instruction  and  the  pleasures  of  the  mind ; 
he  has  taken  her  in  marriage  under  the  forms  of  purchase  and 
sal*1;  he  has  declared  her  incapable  of  inheritance  from  her 
father  or  mother;  incompetent  to  give  testimony;  incapable  of 
the  guardianship  of  her  own  children,  herself  reverting  Into 
guardianship  on  the  dissolution  of  her  marriage  by  his  death. 
The  perusal  of  the  various  pagan  legislators  is  a  perpetual  reve- 
lation of  her  ignominy,  more  than  one  of  whom,  carrying 
defiance  to  the  extreme  of  barbarity,  has  constrained  her  to 
follow  the  corpse  of  her  husband,  and  to  shroud  herself  upon 
his  funeral  pyre.' ' 

"All  of  which,  Edward,  only  goes  to  show  the  cruelty,  injus- 
tice, and  tyranny  of  your  sex.  Is  or  should  you  forget  that 
women  have  not  yet  been  freed  from  all  these  limitations  and 
restrictions,  even  in  our  own  country." 

"But  the  point  I  am  trying  to  make,"  said  Mr.  Notion,  "is 
that  Christianity  from  the  very  first  has  redressed  the  wrongs  of 
woman,  surrounded  her  with  a  veritable  halo  of  respect  and 
even  veneration,  insisted  on  the  sacredncss  of  the  marriage  tie, 
denounced  divorce  under  every  circumstance  but  one,  and  held 
up  for  the  esteem  and  admiration  of  all  ages  that  honored  woman 


108  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

who,  as  the  mother  of  the  Saviour,  exclaimed,  '  All  generations 
shall  call  me  blessed. ' ' 

"I  am  not  disposed  to  differ  from  you  as  to  the  influence  of 
Christianity  in  elevating  and  protecting  womanhood,"  remarked 
Mi's.  Notion,  "but  I  would  remind  you  that  there  are  men  who 
disagree  with  you  in  these  matters,  and  who  think  that  the  Chris- 
tian church  has  come  far  short  of  according  to  woman  the  con- 
sideration which  she  deserves  as  the  chief  human  instrumentality 
in  bringing  about  its  triumphs.  August  Bebel,  whom  you  quote 
with  approbation,  says:  'Those  who  extol  Christianity  as  a  great 
achievement  in  civilization,  should  not  forget  that  to  women  a 
large  portion  of  its  successes  are  due.  Their  missionary  zeal 
made  itself  felt  as  a  powerful  agent  in  the  early  days  of  Chris- 
tianity, as  well  as  among  barbarous  nations  in  the  middle  ages, 
and  men  of  high  rank  were  converted  by  them.  Among  others, 
we  are  told  of  Chlotilda,  who  induced  Chlodwig,  king  of  the 
Franks,  to  accept  Christianity;  of  Bertha,  queen  of  Kent,  and 
of  Gisela,  queen  of  Hungary,  who  introduced  Christianity  into 
their  countries.  It  was  a  woman's  influence,  too,  that  effected 
the  conversion  of  the  Duke  of  Poland,  of  the  Czar  Jarislaw,  and 
of  many  other  kings  and  nobles.  But  Christianity  requited  her 
ill.  Its  dogmas  contain  the  same  contempt  of  women  as  all  the 
ancient  religions  of  the  East;  it  degrades  her  to  the  rank  of  the 
humble  servant  of  man,  and  forces  her  to  pledge  her  obedience 
to  her  husband  before  the  altar  to  this  day.'  ' 

"Matilda!"  exclaimed  her  husband  reproachfully,  "do  you 
approve  of  such  sentiments  as  those  ? ' ' 

"Not  entirely,  Edward;  but  while  I  would  shrink  from  criti- 
cizing any  of  the  teachings  of  Holy  Writ,  and  would  not  even 
venture  to  take  exception  to  the  views  of  Paul  with  regard  to 
women,  I  do  say  that  the  church  as  an  ecclesiastical  organization 
has  not  always  given  woman  her  due.  Even  to-day  she  is 
excluded  from  the  highest  councils  of  nearly  every  Christian 
denomination.  While,  as  you  say,  Christianity  restored  to  mar- 
riage its  imlissolubility,  its  sanctity,  and  its  unity,  many  of  the 
early  fathers  of  the  church  entertained  views  regarding  women 
which  were  extremely  unjust.  For  instance,  Tertullian  is  credited 
with  the  following  apostrophe  to  our  sex:  '  Woman  1  thou  oughtest 
always  to  walk  in  mourning  and  rags,  thine  eyes  filled  with  tears 
of  repentance,  to  make  men  forget  that  thou  hast  been  the 
destruction  of  the  race.  Woman!  thou  art  the  gate  of  hell.' 


WOMAN    IN    HEATHKN    AND    CHRISTIAN    LANDS.  109 

Jerome  wisely  remarks:  '  Marriage  is  at  the  best  a  vice;  all  that 
we  can  do  is  to  excuse  and  purify  it.'  Origen  declares:  'Mar- 
riage is  unholy  and  unclean,  a  means  of  sensual  lust.'  Even 
Augustine,  whose  mother,  St.  Monica,  Avas  one  of  the  saintliest 
and  loveliest  of  characters,  thus  expresses  himself  on  this  subject: 
'Celibates  will  shine  in  heaven  like  dazzling  stars,  while  the 
parents  who  begot  them  resemble  stars  without  light.'  In  the 
Council  of  Macon,  which  was  held  in  the  sixth  century,  the 
learned  fathers  gravely  discussed  the  question  as  to  whether  or 
not  woman  had  a  soul." 

"It  is  highly  unfair,  Matilda,  to  take  these  extreme  and 
isolated  passages  from  the  writings  of  the  fathers,  and  attempt  to 
make  the  ecclesiastical  system  which  constituted  the  exterior 
fabric  of  Christianity  responsible  for  them.  That  system  became 
gradually  apostate  from  the  very  first,  and  certainly  has  enough 
to  answer  for,  without  trying  to  make  it  appear  that  it  was  hostile 
to  women,  or  otherwise  than  most  friendly  to  the  institution  of 
marriage.  I  admit  that  even  in  the  first  centuries  of  our  era 
there  was  a  growing  sentiment  among  the  clergy  in .  favor  of 
celibacy,  and  that  this  sentiment  found  expression  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  innumerable  monasteries  and  nunneries,  and  finally 
culminated  in  the  enforced  celibacy  of  the  priesthood.  If  it 
were  not  foreign  to  our  present  purpose,  I  should  like  to  refer 
you  to  many  interesting  passages  in  Lea's  great  work  on  'Sacer- 
dotal Celibacy, '  and  to  show  you  how  long  and  sturdily  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  priesthood  fought  against  the  papal  decrees  which 
prohibited  their  marriage." 

' '  Do  not  misunderstand  me,  Edward.  I  am  too  good  a  Chris- 
tian to  blame  Christianity  for  churchly  injustice  to  woman.  It  is 
the  human  element  in  the  church,  and  not  the  divine,  which  is 
responsible  for  these  things.  In  fact,  you  men  have  always 
insisted,  and  still  insist,  upon  the  absolute  domination  of  eccle- 
siastical as  well  as  civil,  political,  industrial,  and  commercial 
affairs.  I  have  no  complaint  to  make  against  the  principles  of 
Christianity,  for  they  are  pure  and  good  in  every  way,  but  I  do 
protest  against  the  injustice,  unfairness,  and  tyranny  still  dis- 
played in  America  as  elsewhere  by  your  sex  toward  mine." 

"  It  is  quite  possible, "  replied  Mr.  Notion,  "that  the  ancient 
abuses  and  discriminations  against  women  have  not  all  been  swept 
away,  even  in  those  countries  where  the  teachings  of  Christianity 
are  most  perfectly  exemplified.  You  know  my  views  as  to  how 


110  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

far  Christendom  really  is  from  the  Christian  standard,  as  to  what 
awful  iniquities  it  will  have  to  answer  for,  as  to  how  heinously  it 
has  sinned  against  light  and  knowledge.  You  know  my  opinion 
in  regard  to  the  monstrous  divorce  laws  of  the  different  states  in 
the  American  commonwealth,  which  if  permitted  to  continue  in 
operation  will  eventually  destroy  the  institution  of  marriage,  and 
make  the  relations  of  the  sexes  simply  those  of  legalized  prostitu- 
tion. And  yet  there  is  no  comparison  between  the  lot  of  woman 
in  Christendom  and  outside  the  sphere  of  its  influence.  In 
China,  that  ancient  empire,  polygamy  has  always  existed.  There 
the  husband  may  repudiate  his  wife  upon  the  most  frivolous  pre- 
text, and  in  one  case  a  divorce  was  granted  because  'the  wife 
had  filled  the  house  with  smoke,  and  scolded  the  dog  so  that  he 
was  frightened.'  You  are  well  aware  how  the  feet  of  the  women 
of  the  higher  classes  are  compressed  and  mutilated.  But  the 
Chinese  go  much  farther  in  the  direction  of  deliberate  disfigure- 
ment of  the  human  body,  and  frequently  prepare  a  sort  of  v:^c, 
open  at  both  ends,  in  which  they  fasten  some  unfortunate  found- 
ling so  that  the  head  and  legs  only  can  protrude.  As  the  child 
grows,  its  shape  is  moulded  to  that  of  the  vase,  which  is  finally 
broken  and  removed,  and  the  horrible  human  curio  is  ready  for 
sale  to  the  keeper  of  some  oriental  side-show.  In  China  the  birth 
of  a  daughter  is  considered  a  misfortune,  and  you  can  offer  no 
deadlier  insult  to  a  Chinese  gentleman  than  to  ask  him  if  he  has 
any  daughters.  The  infanticide  of  female  children  is  still  exten- 
sively practiced,  and  thousands  of  infants  are  yearly  exposed  to 
die  by  their  heartless  parents.  A  widow  must  either  marry  again 
or  become  a  bonzcss,  and  as  a  courtezan  devote  herself  to  the 
worship  of  Fo.  In  Japan  woman  lives  in  a  seraglio,  and  if  the 
husband  wishes  a  divorce,  he  does  not  have  to  even  put  her  away, 
but  is  only  required  to  condemn  her  to  a  separate  apartment,  in 
order  to  entitle  him  to  marry  another.  He  lias  the  power  to  kill 
her  for  infidelity,  and  is  authorized  bylaw  to  either  kill  or  sell 
his  children.  In  the  island  of  Formosa  women  are  forbidden  to 
bear  children  before  they  have  attained  the  age  of  thirty-six,  and 
the  crime  of  abortion,  now  so  popular  in  our  own  country,  is  theie 
made  compulsory  until  the  requisite  age  is  attained.  In  Burmah 
the  women  are  notoriously  dissolute;  in  Si  am  wives  are  freely 
bought  and  sold;  and  in  India  women  are  still  persecuted  and 
despised.  In  the  last-named  country  the  wife  is  her  husband's 
serf,  and  is  required  to  regard  him  as  a  divinity,  while  he 


WOMAX    IX    IIKATHKX    .VXD    MIUISTI.VX    I.AXDS.  Ill 

addresses  her  in  harsh  tones.  Until  the  English  enacted  and 
enli >rced  laws  preventing  the  fiendish  practice,  widows  were  com- 
pelled by  public  opinion  to  die  with  their  deceased  husbands, 
either  on  the  funeral  pyre,  or  to  be  buried  alive.  With  the 
innumerable  atrocities  which  are  committed  against  the  girls  of 
India  by  compelling  them  to  marry  men  before  they  are  either 
physically  or  mentally  capable  of  discharging  the  functions  and 
duties  of  matrimony,  you  are  doubtless  familiar.  Against  these 
terrible  abuses  the  British  government  of  the  country  has  as  yet 
been  unable  to  make  any  measurable  headway." 

"Just  one  question  at  this  point,  Mr.  Notion.  Don't  you 
suppose  if  English  women  were  represented  in  the  government  of 
India  as  largely  as  are  the  men,  that  more  progress  would  be 
made  in  abolishing  these  dreadful  evils?" 

"Your  question,"  answered  Mr.  Notion  deprecatingly, 
"  opens  up  another  and  very  important  subject,  viz.,  the  political 
rights  of  women,  and  in  order  to  answer  it  as  it  deserves,  I  should 
be  compelled  to  wander  far  from  our  present  topic.  Please 
remind  me  of  it  when  we  reach  that  phase  of  our  general  theme, 
and  I  shall  gladly  give  you  my  opinions  relative  thereto.  But, 
to  continue,  let  me  quote  again  from  '  Satan  in  Society ' :  'In 
Africa,  from  the  Great  Desert  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  from 
the  coasts  of  Senegambia  to  those  of  Zanguebar,  among  the  Jalofs, 
the  Foulis,  the  Mandingoes,  the  negroes  of  the  Gold  Coast,  of 
Congo,  and  of  Angola,  among  the  Jagos,  the  Hottentots,  and  all 
the  other  tribes,  the  status  of  woman  is  most  deplorable.'  A 
little  further  down  on  the  same  page  I  find  the  following: 
'  Between  Christianity  and  paganism  there  is  a  religion  which  is, 
so  to  speak,  intermediate;  which  has  borrowed  from  the  former 
some  of  its  dogmas  and  its  morality,  and  from  the  latter  a  host  of 
the  superstitions  of  idolatry.  We  allude  to  Mohammedism.  With 
the  Mussulman  the  position  of  women  is  altogether  peculiar.  In 
the  material  point  of  view  she  is  not  so  unhappy  as  Avith  many 
other  people  whose  history  we  have  examined,  but  morally  speak- 
ing she  is  completely  annihilated.  It  would  seem  that  the 
sensuality  of  the  Mohammedans  has  aimed  to  destroy  the  last 
vestiges  of  her  moral  nature,  leaving  only  the  automaton,  the 
physical  being,  the  passive  instrument  of  man's  pleasure.  Their 
word  designating  a  certain  class  of  'wives'  has  the  same  root  as 
another  word  which  signifies  utnixH.  A  Mohammedan  has  the 
right  to  marry  as  many  wives  as  he  pleases.  The  rich  often  have 


112  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

a  considerable  number.  Surrounded  as  they  are  by  all  sorts  of 
precautions,  including  vigilant  and  argus-eyed  guardians,  the 
women  are  so  corrupt  that  not  only  do  they  practice  the  most 
incredible  immoralities  among  themselves,  but  they  find  means  of 
keeping  up  intrigues  and  escapades  the  most  astonishing.  At 
the  slave  marts  of  Constantinople  there  are  found  negresses, 
Mingreliaus,  Georgians,  and  Circassians.  The  latter  are  taken 
in  the  raids  that  the  people  of  Caucasus  make  upon  each  other,  or 
are  bought  from  their  parents.  Many  of  them  are  very  beautiful ; 
indeed,  they  spring  from  the  most  beautiful  type  of  the  human 
race.  A  girl  of  average  beauty  costs  about  the  same,  a  little  less, 
rather,  than  a  horse — say  twenty  to  thirty  dollars.  Once  arrived 
at  the  seraglio,  the  young  slave  has  to  undergo  a  regime  which 
must  prove  to  her  a  veritable  torture.  She  must  absolutely  grow 
fat,  under  penalty  of  displeasing  or  failing  to  please  her  husband. 
Your  Mussulman  has  a  singular  idea  of  beauty.  For  him  a 
woman  is  only  beautiful  when  inordinately  fat — so  fat  that  in 
walking  she  has  to  be  supported  by  a  slave  on  either  side.  So, 
to  be  pleasing,  she  must  drink  without  thirst  and  eat  without 
hunger.  In  certain  parts  of  Arabia  the  young  girls  are  forced  to 
swallow,  after  their  appetite  has  been  satisfied,  several  rations  of 
fat  and  quantities  of  camel's  milk.  Horrible  state  of  society! 
where  each  petty  despot  lives  like  a  bird  of  prey  in  his  hole,  like 
a  savage  beast  in  his  den ;  where  all  the  sentiments  which  bud  or 
develop  under  the  influence  of  women  in  Christian  lauds  are 
repressed  or  destroyed;  where  the  most  abject  and  disgusting 
egotism  rules;  where  love  is  but  gross  sensualism;  where  paternal, 
maternal,  and  filial  affection  rise  but  little  above  the  instincts  of 
the  brute;  where  woman  passes  her  life  inclosed  within  four  walls, 
or  walks  enveloped  in  a  long  veil,  like  a  phantom  revisiting  a 
world  to  which  she  no  more  belongs.  Every  one  shuns  her. 
She  moves  silently,  sadly,  and  lonely,  amid  those  who  treat  her  as 
a  slave,  as  a  being  without  a  soul,  without  intelligence,  incapable 
of  loving,  of  feeling,  or  of  suffering. ' 

"A  sad  state  of  affairs,  truly,  Edward,  as  your  author  paints 
the  picture;  and  yet  women  have  much  to  complain  of  here. 
They  have  had  to  fight  their  way  step  by  step  to  the  right  to 
obtain  an  education,  to  hold  office  under  the  government,  to  gain 
admission  to  the  learned  professions,  to  secure  the  guardianship  of 
their  own  children,  and  to-day  they  are  denied  all  participation 
in  either  the  framing  or  execution  of  the  laws  in  nearly  every 
American  commonwealth." 


WOMAN   IN   HEATHEN   AND   CHRISTIAN   LANDS.  113 

"You  bring  up  other  phases  of  the  subject,  Matilda,  and  here- 
after I  shall  be  glad  to  discuss  them  with  you;  but  now  I  desire 
to  impress  indelibly  upon  your  mind,  if  I  can,  the  great  truth 
that  women  in  so-called  Christian  lands  owe  all  their  rights, 
privileges,  advantages,  and  the  consideration  which  they  enjoy,  to 
the  partial  diffusion  of  the  principles  of  the  religion  of  Christ.  In 
conclusion  I  want  you  to  listen  to  the  words  of  James  Bryce  in  his 
great  work  the  'American  Commonwealth,'  relative  to  the  posi- 
tion of  woman  in  America.  He  says:  'It  has  been  well  said 
that  the  position  which  women  hold  in  a  country  is,  if  not  a 
complete  test,  yet  one  of  the  best  tests  of  the  progress  it  has  made 
in  civilization.  When  one  compares  nomad  man  with  settled 
man,  heathen  man  with  Christian  man,  the  ancient  world  with 
the  modern,  the  Eastern  world  with  the  Western,  it  is  plain  that 
in  every  case  the  advance  in  public  order,  in  material  comfort, 
in  wealth,  in  decency  and  refinement  of  manners,  among  the 
whole  population  of  a  country — for  in  these  matters  one  must 
not  look  merely  at  the  upper  class — has  been  accompanied  by  a 
greater  respect  for  women,  by  a  greater  freedom  accorded  to 
them,  by  a  fuller  participation  on  their  part  in  the  best  work  of 
the  world.  Americans  are  fond  of  pointing,  and  can  with  perfect 
justice  point,  to  the  position  their  women  hold  as  an  evidence  of 
the  high  level  their  civilization  has  reached.  Certainly  nothing 
in  the  country  is  more  characteristic  of  the  peculiar  type  their 
civilization  has  taken.'  Mr.  Bryce  has  many  other  interesting 
and  instructive  things  to  say  about  American  women,  but  I  shall 
not  take  the  time  to  quote  them,  especially  as  the  clock  admon- 
ishes me  that  it  is  time  for  us  to  bring  our  present  talk  to  a 
termination. ' ' 


Mr.  and  Mrs.  Notion  Discuss  the  Influence  of 

Women  upon  the  Lives  and  Characters 

of  Great  Men. 

"  A  mother's  love — how  sweet  the  name  1 

What  is  a  mother's  love? — 
A  noble,  pure,  and  tender  flame, 

Enkindjed  from  above, 
To  bless  a  heart  of  earthly  mould; 
The  warmest  love  that  can  grow  cold; 
This  is  a  mother's  love." 

— James  Montgomery. 

"I  promised  to  show  you,  Ned,  that  some  good  woman  had 
invariably  strengthened  the  hands  of  the  men  who  were  recog- 
nized as  leaders  of  thought  and  action,  and  that  it  seemed  to  be 
a  deep-seated  principle  of  humanity  that  without  the  active  though 
perhaps  hidden  participation  of  woman,  no  great  progress  or 
uplift  of  our  race  could  be  accomplished.  I  am  now  ready  to 
prove  this,  so  far  as  such  a  proposition  admits  of  proof,  and 
wish  at  the  outset  to  quote  briefly  from  the  preface  of 
Laura  C.  Holloway's  work  on  'The  Mothers  of  Great  Men  and 
Women.'  Among  many  other  things  well  worth  remembering, 
she  says :  '  The  influence  of  the  mother  has  been  proclaimed  by 
all  races  of  men  in  all  ages.  The  Red  Cross  Knights  who 
sauntered  to  "Hainte  Terre, "  and  when  they  reached  the  Holy 
Land  fought  for  the  Holy  Sepulcher,  were  inspired  to  their 
pilgrimages  by  zealous  mothers  and  wives.  The  deeds  of  heroism 
in  every  age  have  been  the  indirect,  if  not  the  direct,  work  of 
women,  and  most  frequently  of  mothei-s.  We  need  not — 

"Pardon  the  interruption,  my  dear,  but  before  you  proceed 
any  farther,  I  wish  to  remark  that  those  mothers  and  wives  did 
a  very  foolish  thing  when  they  sent  their  loved  ones  on  such  a 
reckless,  dangerous  errand,  and  one  from  which  the  majority  of 
them  never  returned  to  home  and  native  land." 

"But,   Edward,   those   were   days  of  chivalry   and   religious 

(114) 


WOMEN'S    INFLUENCE   UPON    GREAT    MEN.  115 

enthusiasm,  and  the  women  as  well  as  the  men  naturally  sup- 
posed that  it  was  a  holy  and  a  meritorious  enterprise,  under  the 
sanction  of  mother  church,  to  rescue  the  land  made  sacred  by 
the  Saviour  of  mankind,  from  the  grasp  of  the  pagans,  or 
unbelieving  Mussulmen. ' ' 

"That  is  very  true,  Matilda,  but,  while  it  excuses  the  women 
of  that  day  for  sending  their  brave  sons  and  husbands  to  suffer 
and  perish  needlessly  in  an  inhospitable  clime,  the  course  of 
conduct  on  their  part  which  requires  such  excuse,  is  not  deserving 
of  encomiums  from  the  enlightened  women  of  our  own  time. ' ' 

"Please  let  me  continue  reading,  sir.  The  gifted  lady  from 
whom  I  quote  continues:  'We  need  not  travel  back  to  antiquity 
to  find  illustrations  of  this  truth;  the  women  of  this  age  are 
living  evidences  of  the  source  from  whence  their  sons  have 
derived  their  gifts  of  mind  and  health.  Every  department  of 
human  energy  and  excellence  in  modern  times  in  all  countries 
furnishes  abundant  examples  of  the  truth  that  whatever  the 
mother  is  that  will  the  son  be  also.'  A  little  further  on  she 
says:  'There  is  no  love  like  a  mother's  love,  and  love  being  the 
highest  and  most  potential  of  human  qualities,  it  may  be  con- 
cluded, very  naturally,  that  the  intensity  of  affection  bestowed 
by  a  mother  of  character  upon  her  son  marks  him  as  hers  through 
life.'" 

"I  must  admit,  Matilda,  that  there  is  much  truth  in  that 
assertion." 

"I  will  now  talk  a  little,"  said  Mrs.  Notion,  "about  the 
mothers  of  great  generals.  Our  own  George  Washington  had 
a  great  mother.  As  Mrs.  Holloway  says:  'Like  the  mothers  of 
all  great  and  earnest  men,  she  was  a  praying  woman.  Her 
Bible  was  her  constant  companion,  and  its  precepts  were  ever  on 
her  lips.'  '  A  silent,  serious  woman  she  was,  self-contained, 
self-respecting,  and  reserved.  During  the  forty-six  years  of  her 
widowhood  she  managed  her  household  and  farm  without  the 
a— istance  of  any  adviser,  and  reared  her  children  to  usefulness 
and  honor,  and  saw  them  go  forth  into  the  world  equipped  for 
its  work  and  pain.  That  they  each  and  all  revered  her,  and 
sought  her  counsel  in  every  emergency,  is  sufficient  testimony  of 
her  worth  and  ability.'  ' 

"  I  should  judge  from  these  statements,  Matilda,  that  Mary 
Washington  was  a  home  woman,  that  she  attained  her  success 
in  life  by  attending  strictly  to  her  domestic  duties,  and  leaving 


116  DOMESTIC  DUELS. 

the  management  of   the  world  at  large  and  the  great   universe 
beyond  it  to  the  wisdom  of  the  Creator. ' ' 

"Yes,  sir,  she  was  a  domestic  woman,  but  she  was  a  business 
woman  also,  and  carried  on  successfully  large  affairs.  It  was 
not  her  lot  to  be  cooped  up  in  a  little,  narrow  home,  and  to 
know  nothing  outside  of  the  four  walls  of  her  own  house.  But 
we  must  not  digress.  Mrs.  Washington  and  her  son  George 
were  very  similar  in  character,  conduct,  and  personal  appearance. 
They  both  lacked  humor  and  imagination,  and  were  both  char- 
acterized in  an  extreme  degree  by  gentleness,  conscientiousness* 
and  resolution  of  purpose.  Mrs.  Washington  was  a  great  woman, 
and  a  consistent  Christian,  who  lived  as  she  prayed  during  the 
eighty-three  years  of  her  life.  She  was  inflexible  in  courage, 
and  unyielding  in  purpose,  and  imbued  with  the  heroic  spirit  of 
the  Scotch  Covenanters,  from  whom  she  was  descended.  Wash- 
ington Irving  says  of  her:  'Endowed  with  plain,  direct  good 
sense,  thorough  conscientiousness,  and  prompt  decision,  she  gov- 
erned her  family  strictly,  but  kindly,  exacting  deference  while 
she  inspired  affection.  George,  being  her  eldest  son,  was  thought 
to  be  her  favorite,  yet  she  never  gave  him  undue  preference,  and 
the  implicit  deference  exacted  from  him  in  childhood  continued 
to  be  habitually  observed  by  him  to  the  day  of  her  death,  lie 
inherited  from  her  a  high  temper  and  a  spirit  of  command,  but 
her  early  precepts  and  example  taught  him  to  restrain  and  govern 
that  temper,  and  to  square  his  conduct  on  the  exact  principles  of 
equity  and  justice.'  You  will  see  from  this,  Mr.  Notion,  that 
George  Washington  inherited  his  good  qualities  from  his  mother, 
and  was  trained  and  formed  almost  entirely  by  her,  as  his  father 
died  while  he  was  still  a  lad." 

"Yes,  my  dear,  I  see  all  this,  and  wait  impatiently  for  you 
to  continue  your  showing." 

"Another  great  woman  who  became  the  mother  of  a  great 
son,  was  Letitia  Bonaparte,  who  was  married  to  Charles  Bona- 
parte before  she  was  sixteen,  and  who  between  her  marriage  and 
the  death  of  her  husband,  when  she  was  thirty-five,  gave  birth  to 
thirteen  children,  eight  of  whom  readied  maturity.  She  was  a 
woman  of  singular  beauty,  which  she  retained  until  her  death,  at 
the  age  of  seventy-nine.  Napoleon,  in  speaking  of  his  boy- 
hood, thus  refers  to  his  mother:  'I  had  need  to  be  on  the  alert; 
our  mother  would  have  repressed  my  warlike  humor;  she  would 
not  have  put  up  with  my  caprices.  Her  tenderness  was  joined 


WOMKN'S  IXKLUKNCK  UPON  GREAT  MEN.  117 

with  severity;  she  punished,  rewarded,  all  alike;  the  good,  the 
bad,  nothing  escaped  her.  She  did  indeed  watch  over  us  with 
a  solicitude  unexampled.  Every  low  sentiment,  every  ungener- 
ous affection  was  discarded,  discouraged;  she  suffered  nothing  but 
what  was  grand  and  elevated  to  take  root  in  our  youthful  under- 
standings. She  abhorred  falsehood,  was  provoked  by  disobedi- 
ence; she  passed  over  none  of  our  faults.'  At  another  time 
Napoleon  thus  spoke  of  her:  'Left  without  guide,  without  sup- 
port, my  mother  was  obliged  to  take  the  direction  of  affairs  upon 
herself.  But  the  task  was  not  above  her  strength ;  she  managed 
everything,  provided  for  everything,  with  a  prudence  and  sagacity 
which  could  neither  have  been  expected  from  her  sex  nor 
from  her  age.  Oh,  what  a  woman! — where  look  for  her  equal! '  ' 

"You  see,  Matilda,  that  Napoleon  joined  other  men  in  the 
opinion  that  sagacity  is  not  one  of  the  characteristics  of  your  sex, 
and  that  in  possessing  it,  his  mother  was  a  rare  exception  to 
womanhood  at  large. ' ' 

"Yes,  sir,  I  perceive  that  he  entertained  the  almost  universal 
male  conceit  that  only  men  are  wise  and  prudent.  But  I  have 
undertaken  the  task  of  showing  that  both  he  and  you  are  in  error 
in  so  believing.  If  Letitia  Bonaparte  were  the  only  woman  who 
had  displayed  those  qualities,  she  might  be  considered  exceptional 
in  that  regard,  but  she  was  one  among  the  many.  Her  son  used 
to  say  of  her  that  she  had  the  head  of  a  man  on  the  shoulders  of 
a  woman,  and  on  many  occasions  she  showed  her  resolute  spirit,  and 
a  proud  consciousness  of  what  was  due  to  her  as  his  mother. 
Shortly  after  he  was  crowned  emperor,  when  he  met  her  in  the 
gardens  of  St.  Cloud,  half  in  jest  and  half  in  earnest,  he  offered 
her  his  hand  to  kiss.  But  she  flung  it  from  her  with  indignation, 
and  exclaimed  in  the  hearing  of  his  officers,  'It  is  your  duty  to 
kiss  the  hand  of  her  who  gave  you  life!'  When  her  son  was 
exiled  in  Elba,  she  visited  and  comforted  him.  This  gifted 
woman  impressed  not  only  her  appearance  but  her  character  upon 
her  son." 

"Don't  you  think,"  inquired  Mr.  Notion,  "that  she  had 
much  to  do  with  the  faults  and  weaknesses  as  well  as  with  the 
nobler  traits  of  Napoleon  ''.  " 

"  Possibly  she  had,"  admitted  Mrs.  Notion,  "but  I  am  inclined 
to  believe  that  he  largely  inherited  his  defects  of  character  from 
his  father,  who  manifested  no  unusual  abilities,  and  was  an 
attorney  in  Corsica  of  merely  local  reputation.  Besides,  it 


118  DOMESTIC    DUKLS. 

follows  as  a  matter  of  course  that,  having  inherited  all  his  good 
points  from  his  mother,  the  bad  ones  must  have  come  from  his 
father." 

"This,  however,  Matilda,  is  only  your  conjecture,  for  there 
are  no  facts  that  I  know  of  upon  which  you  can  base  any  such 
a  theory.  But  what  say  you  as  to  the  immoralities  and  intrigues 
of  the  daughters  of  this  lady?  Don't  you  think  she  ought  to  be 
held  responsible  for  their  follies,  as  well  as  credited  for  the  great- 
ness of  her  son  ? ' ' 

"No,  sir,  I  do  not.  She  despised  sensuality,  and  surely  was 
not  to  blame  for  that  which  she  cordially  disapproved.  You  must 
also  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that  the  sudden  rise  of  her  daughters 
from  poverty  to  the  position  of  queens  and  princesses  was 
enough  to  turn  their  heads.  But  I  desire  now  to  call  your  atten- 
tion to  the  character  of  Elizabeth,  the  wife  of  Oliver  Cromwell, 
England's  greatest  ruler.  She  had  nine  children,  who  we're 
educated  under  her  supervision  with  great  care.  Devout  in  her 
religious  life,  her  manner  was  dignified,  and  her  mode  of  living 
was  plain  and  unassuming.  She  wielded  great  influence  over 
her  husband,  who  frequently  sought  her  advice,  and  in  one  of  his 
letters  to  her  said:  '  I  could  not  satisfy  myself  to  omit  this  post, 
although  I  have  not  much  to  write;  yet,  indeed,  I  love  to  write  to 
my  dear,  who- is  very  much  in  my  heart.'  He  died  holding  her 
hand,  and  almost  his  last  words  were  encouraging  assurances  to  her 
that  he  would  recover.  This  noble  woman,  whose  head  was  not 
turned  by  power  and  prosperity  such  as  seldom  fall  to  the  lot  of 
mortals,  survived  her  husband  fourteen  years." 

"And  yet,"  suggested  Mr.  Notion,  "this  woman  did  not 
escape  attack,  and  many  rumors  were  circulated  greatly  to  her 
discredit." 

"It  is  true,  Edward,  that  the  Cavalier  party  invented  much 
gossip  concerning  her,  but  they  were  unable  to  prove  that  she 
ever  failed  to  discharge  her  public  as  well  as  her  private  duties 
in  a  creditable  manner.  Let  me  now  remind  you  of  the  great- 
ness of  Sarah  Jennings,  the  wife  of  that  celebrated  general,  the 
Duke  of  Marlborough.  She  was  widely  celebrated  for  her  bril- 
liancy and  beauty.  Though  of  the  most  charming  personality, 
and  the  possessor  of  great  wit,  ambition,  intelligence,  and  political 
power,  she  dearly  loved  her  handsome  and  aide  husband,  and 
was  faithful,  sincere,  and  unselfish  in  a  high  degree.  To  quote 
from  Mrs.  Jlolloway:  'Her  grace,  majesty,  and  loftiness  pj 


WOMEN'S  INFLUENCE  UPON  GREAT  MEN.  119 

carriage  illuminated  the  dull  court,  while  her  wit  flashed  like  an 
unsheathed  sword  in  the  sunlight.'  Undoubtedly  she  had  a 
potent  influence  in  shaping  her  husband's  destiny,  and  bringing 
about  his  success,  by  her  encouragement  and  counsel,  as  well  as 
by  her  power  at  court." 

"She  doubtless  used  her  control  of  the  weak  Anne  for  her 
husband's  benefit,"  remarked  Mr.  Notion,  "but  she  made  him 
pay  dearly  for  all  that  she  gave  him.  She  was  one  of  the  most 
hateful  of  women,  and  by  her  envy,  jealousy,  irritability,  bitter 
defiance,  and  domineering  temper,  must  have  made  the  poor  man 
so  miserable  at  home  that  he  was  glad  to  seek  relief  in  the  camp, 
and,  if  need  be,  risk  his  life  on  the  battle  field.  You  must 
remember,  too,  that  Marlborough  attained  power  and  fame  long 
before  the  reign  of  Anne,  and  that  his  sister,  Arabella,  the  mis- 
tress of  James  the  Second,  had  as  much  to  do  with  his  advance- 
ment as  his  beautiful  and  irascible  wife." 

"How  you  men  do  wander  from  the  subject!  I  was  talking 
of  Sarah,  the  wife  of  Marlborough,  and  you  begin  to  discourse 
about  his  wicked  sister.  Perhaps  you  would  like  to  hear  some- 
thing about  the  mother  of  General  U.  S.  Grant,  from  whom  were 
derived  many  of  his  strongest  characteristics.  Hannah  S.  Grant 
was  a  kind,  matronly  woman,  who  found  her  happiness  in  the 
domestic  circle.  She  was  handsome,  though  not  vain,  possessed 
of  a  sweet  disposition,  prudent,  thoughtful,  pious,  and  'accom- 
plished in  those  household  arts  which  add  so  much  to  the  comfort 
of  a  home.'  One  of  General  Grant's  numerous  biographers  thus 
describes  her:  'She  was  amiable,  serene,  even-tempered,  thor- 
oughly self-forgetful,  kind  and  considerate  to  all,  and  speaking 
ill  of  none.  Her  children  she  governed  with  tender  affection 
and  without  the  rod;  and  in  return  they  were  tractable  and  well- 
behaved,  never  boisterous  or  rude  in  the  family  circle.'  She  was 
very  reticent  and  modest,  and  though  proud  of  her  illustrious 
son,  she  refrained  from  boasting  of  him,  and  spent  her  closing 
days  in  retirement  and  widowhood." 

"  I  fail  to  see, "  said  Mr.  Notion,  "how  Grant  derived  many 
of  his  'strongest  characteristics'  from  a  woman  so  sweet,  gentle, 
kind,  reticent,  serene,  and  tender  as  you  describe  his  mother  to 
have  been.  There  doubtless  were  such  traits  in  his  character, 
but  they  were  not  the  'strong'  qualities,  which  made  him  a  great 
general  and  a  mighty  leader  among  men." 

"Even  so,"  replied  Mi-s.  Notion,  "his  mother  must  be  credited 


120  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

with  having  wisely  and  lovingly  developed  the  best  that  was  iu 
him,  regardless  of  the  question  as  to  whom  he  inherited  it  from ; 
and,  hence,  whether  his  military  genius  was  derived  from  his 
mother  or  not,  you  must  admit  that  she  had  much  to  do  by  her 
training  of  his  early  years,  with  his  brilliant  successes  in  after  life. ' ' 

"Certainly,  Matilda,  I  am  perfectly  willing  to  concede  that, 
but  isn't  that  almost  equivalent  to  saying  that  every  man  has  a 
mother,  and,  consequently,  if  he  succeeds  his  success  must  be 
attributed  to  her  ?  If  that  is  your  argument,  it  proves  too  much, 
for  if  wTe  once  admit  the  superior  influence  of  the  mother  in 
moulding  character  and  determining  the  future  career  of  her 
children,  it  would  logically  follow  that  the  failures,  faults,  and 
crimes  of  men  are  very  largely  to  be  charged  against  their 
mothers. ' ' 

"Not  at  all,"  answered  Mrs.  Notion.  "Good  mothers  :uv 
often  hampered  in  their  efforts  to  rightly  train  their  children,  by 
the  interference  and  bad  example  of  their  husbands.  But  let 
me  continue,  as  I  have  much  to  say  along  this  line.  I  should  be 
faithless  to  my  self-imposed  task  if  I  were  to  omit  all  reference  to 
Rome's  greatest  matron,  Cornelia,  the  mother  of  the  Gracchi. 
This  noble  lady  was  the  daughter  of  the  greatest  Roman  general 
of  his  time,  Scipio  '  Africanus, '  the  wife  of  a  virtuous  and  dis- 
tinguished statesman,  and  the  mother  of  twelve  children,  of 
whom  only  three  reached  maturity.  While  a  widow  she  refused 
the  hand  of  the  great  King  Ptolemy,  and  on  one  occasion,  when 
a  lady  referred  to  the  plainness  of  her  attire,  and  asked  where 
her  jewels  were,  she  replied  that  her  sons  were  the  only  jewels  she 
could  boast  of  possessing.  Upon  the  murder  of  her  sons  by  the 
landed  plutocrats,  she  bore  her  grief  heroically,  and  said  to  a 
friend  who  condoled  with  her,  '  The  woman  who  had  the  Gracchi 
for  her  sons  can  not  be  considered  unfortunate.'  After  her  death 
the  people  erected  a  brass  statue  to  her  memory,  inscribed, 
'Cornelia,  the  Mother  of  the  Gracchi.'  Is  it  any  wonder  that  a 
woman  of  so  lofty  and  patriotic  a  spirit  should  have  imbued  her 
sons  with  similar  noble  sentiments,  and  that  they  should  have 
willingly  sacrificed  their  lives  to  the  welfare  of  their  country  ? ' ' 

"Your  question,  Matilda,  seems  intended  to  contain  its  own 
answer,  and,  like  many  others,  is  put  in  the  interrogative  form 
only  for  rhetorical  effect.  Still,  I  must  dissent  from  your  con- 
clusion. As  you  have  said,  Cornelia's  father  was  Rome's  greatest 
general.  lie  saved  Rome  from  destruction  by  Hannibal  after 


WOMEN'S  INFLUENCE  UPON  GREAT  MEN.  121 

the  battle  of  Cannes,  and  years  afterwards  conquered  the  great 
Carthaginiain  chieftain  at  the  battle  of  Zania.  Her  husband, 
Tiberius  Semprouius  Gracchus,  was  once  censor,  twice  consul, 
and  was  twice  accorded  a  triumph.  Her  uncle,  Lucius  Cornelius 
Scipio,  was  also  a  great  man,  who  filled  one  term  in  the  consulate, 
and  was  surnamed  'Asiaticus.'  It  seems  to  me  it  is  far  more 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  her  sons,  Tiberius  and  Gains,  inherited 
their  powers  from  their  grandfather,  father,  and  grand-uncle, 
than  to  assume  that  all  their  greatness  came  from  their  mother." 

"Edward,  I  am  surprised  at  your  inconsistency.  Don't  you 
see  that  all  the  qualities  which  those  brilliant  men  inherited  from 
their  maternal  grandfather  and  grand-uncle  really  were  derived 
from  their  mother,  who  proved  throughout  her  glorious  life  that 
she  possessed  those  qualities,  and  was  not  a  mere  vehicle  for  their 
transmission  ?  The  matter  is  too  plain  for  argument.  And  now  for 
a  few  words  about  Lady  Sarah  Lennox,  the  mother  of  the  N apiers. 
This  beautiful  and  gifted  woman  was  the  daughter  of  the  second 
Duke  of  Richmond,  the  grandson  of  Charles  the  Second.  Her 
mother  was  Sarah  Cadogan,  whose  father  was  the  favorite  general 
of  the  famous  Duke  of  Maryborough.  The  parents  of  Lady 
Lennox  were  married  while  mere  children,  the  consideration  of 
their  marriage  being  the  cancellation  of  a  gambling  debt  con- 
tracted by  the  father  of  the  bridegroom.  The  youthful  couple 
did  not  live  together  as  husband  and  wife  until  three  years  after 
their  union.  At  that  time,  however,  they  fell  in  love  with  each 
other,  and  were  so  devoted  that  the  wife  died  with  grief  one  year 
after  the  death  of  her  husband.  .The  daughter  of  this  remarkable 
and  romantic  marriage  grew  to  be  one  of  the  most  marvelously 
beautiful  women  in  England,  and  in  an  era,  too,  whicli  was 
famed  for  the  loveliness  of  its  women.  George  the  Third  fell  in 
love  with  her,  and  wanted  to  make  her  his  queen,  but  was 
prevented  from  doing  so  by  a  variety  of  causes.  Horace  "NValpole 
says  of  her:  'When  Lady  Sarah  was  in  white,  with  her  hair 
about  her  ears,  and  on  the  ground,  no  Magdalen  by  Correggio 
was  ever  half  so  lovely  and  expressive.'  ' 

''Will  you  permit  me  to  inquire,  my  dear,  what  her  beauty 
had  to  do  with  the  greatness  of  her  sons  ?  " 

"Nothing,  Ned,  nothing;  but  you  have  always  shown  so  keen 
an  interest  in  handsome  women  that  I  thought  you  would  like  to 
hear  of  this  quality  in  the  mother  of  Sir  Charles  Napier." 

"True,  my  love,  and  had  it  not  been  for  my  rare  powers  of 


122  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

discrimination  in  this  regard,  I  might  not  have  been  so  highly 
favored  in  my  own  matrimonial  experience. ' ' 

"  There,  there,  you  are  beginning  to  flatter  me,  and  I  am  well 
aware  that  you  don't  mean  a  word  of  what  you  say,"  replied  Mrs. 
Notion  smilingly;  "but  in  this  connection  I  may  state  that  Sir 
Charles  Napier,  the  greatest  of  this  fair  woman's  three  distinguished 
sons,  closely  resembled  her  in  personal  appearance.  To  resume 
my  narrative,  Lady  Sarah  married  the  Hon.  George  Napier,  and  for 
'  half  a  century  her  life  was  one  of  purity,  happiness,  and  peace. ' 
She  was  the  mother  of  many  children,  and  her  three  sons,  Charles, 
George,  and  William,  were  brave  soldiers,  who  became  famous  in 
the  service  of  their  country.  But  the  greatest  of  them  was  Charles 
James  Napier,  whose  splendid  military  career  is  too  familiar  a 
part  of  English  history  to  need  repetition  by  me.  In  Spain, 
America,  and  India  he  fought  heroically,  his  last  and  greatest 
victory  being  won  at  the  bloody  battle  of  Meanee,  where  against 
overwhelming  odds  he  subdued  Sciude,  and  brought  it  into  com- 
plete subjection  to  British  rule.  This  was  in  1843.  The  love 
which  existed  between  this  noble  man  and  his  mother  was  touch- 
ing to  contemplate.  His  diary  and  letters  are  full  of  affectionate 
references  and  greetings  to  his  mother,  and  he  was  prostrated  in 
spirit  by  her  death,  in  1826,  at  the  age  of  eighty-one  years.  The 
character  and  career  of  this  man  may  best  be  described  in  a  few 
words  by  quoting  from  the  opening  of  the  book  of  his  brother, 
Lieutenant  Sir  William  Napier,  entitled  '  Life  and  Opinions  of 
General  Sir  Charles  James  Napier,'  where  he  says:  'This  shall 
be  the  story  of  a  man  who  never  tarnished  his  reputation  by  a 
shameful  deed ;  of  one  who  subdued  distant  nations  by  his  valor, 
and  then  governed  them  so  wisely  that  English  rule  was  rever- 
enced and  loved  where  before  it  had  been  feared  and  execrated. ' 
'  His  fame  has  been  accepted  by  the  British  people  as  belonging 
to  the  glory  of  the  nation.'  ' 

"And  do  you  claim,  Matilda,  that  this  illustrious  general 
and  statesman  inherited  his  brilliant  qualities  entirely  from  his 
mother  ? ' ' 

' '  I  feel  certain,  Edward,  that  he  did  to  a  very  large  extent,  if 
not  altogether. ' ' 

' '  But  you  forget,  my  dear,  that  his  father  was  a  descendant  of 
the  great  Mont  rose,  and  of  Napier  of  Merchiston,  inventor  of 
logarithms,  and  of  Lord  Napier,  a  grandson  of  the  mathematician 
who  lost  his  broad  lands  fighting  for  Charles  the  First." 


WOMEN'S  INFLUENCE  UPON  GREAT  MEN.  123 

"Yes,  Edward,  but  the  probability  of  ray  theory  that  the 
greatness  of  Charles  Napier  was  largely  derived  from  his  mother, 
is  shown  by  the  fact  that  her  sister  married  Henry  Fox,  the  first 
Lord  Holland,  and  became  the  mother  of  that  famous  orator  and 
statesman,  Charles  James  Fox." 

' '  I  notice,  too, ' '  said  Mr.  Notion,  that  you  omit  all  reference 
to  the  first  marriage  of  Lady  Sarah,  to  Sir  Charles  Bunbury,  and 
the  subsequent  divorce  obtained  by  him  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
on  the  ground  of  her  infidelity.  Nor  do  you  allude  to  the 
memoirs  of  the  Due  de  Lauzun,  in  which  that  titled  blackguard 
boasts  of  having  triumphed  over  her  virtue.  Thackeray  in  'The 
Virginians'  evidently  has  reference  to  this  book,  when  he  says: 
'  Very  pleasing,  no  doubt,  it  must  be  for  the  grandsons  and 
descendants  of  the  fashionable  persons  among  whom  our  brilliant 
nobleman  moved,  to  find  the  names  of  their  ancestresses  adorning 
M.  le  Due's  sprightly  pages,  and  their  frailties  recorded  by  the 
candid  writer  who  caused  them.  It  is  some  comfort  to  know  that 
the  chivalrous  Due  de  Lauzun  perished  by  the  guillotine  in  the 
days  of  the  fii'st  French  Revolution.'  ' 

"  Why,  Edward,  I  am  ashamed  of  you.  It  certainly  indicates 
little  magnanimity  upon  your  part  to  bring  to  the  light  the  long- 
repented  and  long-forgiven  follies  and  sins  of  a  woman  who  spent 
fifty  years  of  wedded  virtue,  and  brought  into  being  the  noble 
men  whom  I  have  described." 

"Now,  don't  misunderstand  me,  or  misconstrue  my  motives," 
exclaimed  Mr.  Notion.  "  I  should  be  the  last  to  drag  from  their 
long  oblivion  the  misdeeds  and  frailties  of  this  or  any  other 
woman,  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  you  insist  on  crediting  her 
with  all  the  talents  and  goodness  of  her  husband's  children.  I 
simply  offer  this  as  valid  evidence  in  disproof  of  your  allegations." 

"And  do  you  believe  the  charges  of  that  infamous  French 
scoundrel  ?  ' '  asked  Mrs.  Notion  rather  sharply. 

"Ah,  that  is  not  the  question,  Matilda!  My  belief  or  disbe- 
lief in  them  cuts  no  figure  here.  I  offer  them  for  what  they  are 
worth,  although  I  must  own  that  I  have  little  confidence  in  the 
word  of  any  man  who  is  capable  of  so  base  an  act,  and  concur  in 
the  opinion  of  Lauxun  thus  expressed  by  Thomas  De  Quincey: 
'  On  the  hypothesis  most  favorable  to  the  writer,  the  basest  of 
men,  he  is  self-denounced  as  vile  enough  to  have  forged  the,  stories 
he  tells,  and  can  not  complain  if  he  should  be  roundly  accused  of 
doing  that  which  he  has  taken  pains  to  prove  himself  capable  of 
doing.'  " 


124  DOMKSTIC    JH'KLS. 

"I  am  glad,  sir,  that  you  have  the  manhood  to  doubt  at  least 
the  uncorroborated  statement  of  such  a  wretch ;  and  without 
further  discussing  the  ISapier  family,  I  wish  to  direct  your  atten- 
tion to  a  still  clearer  case  of  a  noble  mother  transmitting  her  own 
goodness  and  genius  to  a  son.  General  Thomas  .Jackson,  better 
known  as  'Stonewall'  Jackson,  was  the  son  of  Jonathan  Jackson, 
a  well-born  Virginian,  who,  though  possessing  considerable  inher- 
ited wealth,  and  enjoying  a  lucrative  legal  practice,  gambled 
away  his  fortune,  and  at  his  death  left  his  wife  and  children 
dependent  upon  the  charity  of  others.  Mrs.  Jackson,  whose 
maiden  name  was  Julia  Neale,  was  also  a  native  of  Virginia. 
She  was  handsome,  graceful,  and  unusually  cultured.  When  left  a 
widow  with  three  children,  of  whom  Thomas,  then  three  years  old, 
was  the  youngest,  she  tried  to  earn  a  living  for  herself  and  family 
by  taking  in  sewing  and  teaching  a  small  school.  After  three 
years  of  struggle,  she  was  induced  to  marry  a  man  almost  as  poor 
as  herself,  and  was  compelled  to  relinquish  her  children  to  the 
care  of  their  father's  kindred.  Her  grief  at  parting  from 
Thomas,  especially,  who  was  then  a  pretty,  blue-eyed  boy  of  six, 
is  described  as  pitiful  and  almost  heart-breaking,  and  the  scene 
was  so  sorrowful  that  it  left  an  indelible  impression  upon  the 
child's  memory,  and  saddened  every  year  of  his  future  life." 

"Excuse  me,  Matilda,  but  wasn't  Mrs.  Jackson  very  foolish 
to  take  a  step  which  compelled  this  separation  from  her  children? 
She  voluntarily  married  a  second  time,  and  well  knew  the  poverty 
of  her  second  husband,  and  yet,  despite  this  knowledge,  she 
deliberately  pursued  a  course  which  she  must  have  been  aware 
would  necessarily  result  in  depriving  her  of  the  companionship  of 
her  little  ones. ' ' 

' ( No  one  can  deny, ' '  replied  Mrs.  Notion,  ' '  that  she  made  a 
serious  mistake,  but,  after  all,  the  fault  was  not  hers,  but  that  of  her 
first  husband,  who  unnecessarily  and  by  Ins  own  profligate  conduct 
exposed  her  to  the  horrors  of  want.  My  own  opinion  is  that  her 
three  years'  conflict,  single-handed,  with  poverty  and  misery  left 
her  in  such  a  mental  and  nervous  condition  that  she  was  not 
fully  capable  of  realizing  the  consequences  of  her  second  marriage, 
and  that,  without  recognizing  the  danger  of  separation  from  her 
children,  she  gladly  welcomed  any  change  which  promised  her 
sympathy,  companionship,  and  assistance." 

"You  may  be  right,  Matilda,  but  how  bitterly  she  must  have 
repented  her  folly!  " 


WOMEN'S  INFLUENCE  UPON  GREAT  MEN.  125 

"Folly,  yes,"  thoughtfully  remarked  Mrs.  Notion,  "  but  sin, 
no.  Mrs.  Jackson  was  a  \voniau  of  genuine  Christian  character, 
and  during  the  six  years  which  her  little  boy  spent  in  her  society 
she  impressed  her  own  spirit  of  faith  and  prayer  upon  him.  At 
the  age  of  seven  he  saw  her  on  her  death-bed,  and  ever  after  he 
remembered  her  with  tenderness,  and  idealized  her  beauty  and 
amiability  of  character." 

"  What  a  sad,  and  yet  what  a  glorious  life,"  exclaimed  Mr. 
Notion,  "  was  that  of  General  Jackson!  An  orphan  boy,  leaving 
the  home  of  his  stern  uncle  when  only  eight  years  old,  living  four 
years  with  another  uncle,  wandering  away  again  with  his  way- 
ward elder  brother,  enduring  all  sorts  of  hardships  on  the  Missis- 
sippi, and  earning  a  living  cutting  wood  for  the  river  steamers, 
returning  sick  with  chills  and  fever  to  his  kind  uncle,  grieving 
over  his  brother's  early  death,  losing  his  beloved  wife  after  four- 
teen months  of  joyous  companionship,  dying  in  manhood's  prime 
from  a  cruel  wound,  saying  a  last  farewell  to  his  little  daughter — 
in  all  these  scenes  of  his  earthly  pilgrimage  the  element  of  sadness 
predominates. ' ' 

"Yes,"  said  Mrs.  Notion,  "his  life  was  characterized  by 
much  of  sorrow  and  suffering,  but  he  developed  one  of  the  grand- 
est characters  to  be  found  emblazoned  on  the  pages  of  history. 
His  undaunted  determination  to  enter  West  Point,  and  final 
success  in  doing  so,  his  faithful  career  as  a  student,  his  fidelity  to 
duty  as  a  professor  in  the  Virginia  Military  Institute,  his  bravery 
on  the  field  of  Churubusco,  his  heroic  and  brilliant  achievements 
as  a  general  in  the  Confederate  army — all  testify  to  his  greatness 
of  soul.  He  resolved  when  a  boy  to  be  great  and  good,  and  the 
only  falsehood  he  ever  remembered  telling  was  when  his  men 
became  panic-stricken  during  an  engagement  in  the  Mexican 
War,  and  as  the  bullets  flew  about  them,  he  called  upon  them  to 
follow  him,  and  exclaimed,  *  Don't  you  see  there  is  no  danger  ?  ' 
It  was  at  the  battle  of  Manassus  that  he  was  given  the  title  of 
'  Stonewall '  in  consequence  of  the  remark  made  by  General  Bee, 
as  he  pointed  his  own  wavering  men  to  Jackson's  command,  and 
said,  '  There  is  Jackson  standing  like  a  stone  wall. '  From  that 
time  the  term  was  indissolubly  associated  Avith  his  name.  One 
night  when  his  men  were  weary  and  worn,  rather  than  have  any 
of  them  awakened  to  stand  picket  duty,  he  stayed  up  until 
morning,  and  guarded  the  camp  himself.  Such  things  as  these 
greatly  endeared  him  to  his  soldiers." 


126  DOMESTIC   i>n-:i.s. 

"I  thoroughly  agree  with  you,  Matilda,  in  your  high  opinion 
of  General  Jackson.  He  was  certainly  a  man  of  the  stricter 
truthfulness,  most  unyielding  integrity,  and  the  highest  standard 
of  morals. " 

"But  even  better  than  all  that,  Edward,  and  because  it  com- 
prehended it  all,  was  his  beautiful  Christian  character.  Every 
one  that  knew  him  respected  him  for  his  deep  and  unaffected 
piety.  Like  his  sweet  mother,  he  died  the  Christian  he  had  lived. 
Her  unwavering  faith,  and  unbroken  composure  of  spirit  in  the 
presence  of  death,  were  thus  described  by  her  husband :  *  No 
Christian  on  earth,  no  matter  what  evidence  he  might  have  had 
of  a  happy  hereafter,  could  have  died  with  more  fortitude. 
Perfectly  in  her  senses,  calm  and  deliberate,  she  met  her  fate 
without  a  murmur  or  a  struggle.  Death  for  her  had  no  sting; 
the  grave  could  claim  no  victory.  I  have  known  few  women  of 
equal,  none  of  superior  merit. '  When  the  time  came  for  her  heroic 
son  to  die,  he  said  to  his  chaplain,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Lacy,  who  had 
just  come  to  his  tent:  'You  see  me  severely  wounded,  but  not 
depressed,  not  unhappy.  I  believe  that  it  has  been  done  accord- 
ing to  God's  holy  will,  and  I  acquiesce  entirely  in  it.  You  may 
think  it  strange,  but  you  never  saw  me  more  perfectly  contented 
than  I  am  to-day,  for  I  am  sure  that  my  heavenly  Father  designs 
this  affliction  for  my  good.  I  am  perfectly  satisfied  that  either  in 
this  life  or  in  that  which  is  to  come  I  shall  discover  that  what  is 
now  regarded  as  a  calamity  is  a  blessing.  And  if  it  appears  a 
great  calamity  (as  it  surely  will  be  a  great  inconvenience)  to  be 
deprived  of  my  arm,  it  will  result  in  a  great  blessing.  I  can 
wait  until  God,  in  his  own  time,  shall  make  known  to  mo  the 
object  he  has  in  thus  afflicting  me.  But  why  should  I  not  rather 
rejoice  in  it  as  a  blessing,  and  not  look  on  it  as  a  calamity  at  all  ?  ' 
In  this  sweet  spirit  of  resignation  and  submission  both  mother  and 
son  passed  over  the  boundary  which  separates  the  seen  from  the 
unseen  world,  she  to  gain  a  glad  release  from  poverty,  suffering, 
and  sorrow,  lie  to  rest  from  his  arduous  and  highly-responsible 
duties,  and  to  leave  behind  millions  of  mourners,  as  he  '  pas>ed 
over  the  river  to  rest  under  the  shade  of  the  trees '  on  the  sunny 
shores  of  eternity." 

"I  have  noticed,"  remarked  Mr.  Notion  as  he  wiped  a  tear 
from  his  cheek,  "that  thus  far  you  have  confined  your.-elf  to  the 
mothers  and  wives  of  great  soldiers.  Is  it  possible  that  you  have 
found  no  instances  of  great  men  in  other  walks  of  life  who  owe 
much  to  women  for  their  character  and  success  ? ' ' 


WOMEN'S  INFLUENCE  UPON  GREAT  MKN.  127 

' '  The  fact  is,  "Ned,  that  I  have  a  superabundance  of  material, 
and  my  chief  fear  is  that  your  patience  will  be  exhausted  long 
before  I  conclude  my  enumeration  of  the  great  sons  of  great 
mothers,  and  the  great  husbands  of  great  wives. ' ' 

"Don't  be  a  bit  afraid  of  that,  Matilda.  This  phase  of  the 
discussion  constitutes  an  interesting  episode  in  itself,  and  is  in 
refreshing  contrast  to  other  branches  of  our  general  subject  which 
we  have  talked  about,  or  which  still  await  our  consideration. 
Go  right  ahead.  I  am  anxious  to  hear  more  about  these  charm- 
ing and  gifted  women  who  bestowed  upon  the  world  the  inestimable 
boon  of  great  and  useful  men. ' ' 

"All  right,  Ned,  I  shall  gladly  do  so,  but  the  clock  admon- 
ishes me  that  it  is  time  to  bring  this  dialogue  to  a  close,  so  I  shall 
postpone  further  discussion  of  our  theme  until  another  evening. ' ' 


Mr.  and  Mrs.  Notion  Continue  to  Discuss  the 

Influence  of  Women  upon  the  Lives  and 

Characters  of  Great  Men. 

"Happy  he 

"With  such  a  mother!  faith  in  womankind 
Beats  with  his  blood,  and  trust  in  all  things  high 
Comes  easy  to  him,  and  though  he  trip  and  fall, 
He  shall  not  hind  his  soul  with  clay." 

—  Tennyson. 

"Few  great  men  have  flourished  who,  were  they  candid,  would  not 
acknowledge  the  vast  advantage  they  had  experienced  in  -the  earlier 
years  of  their  career  from  the  spirit  and  sympathy  of  woman. " — Dtxr<n-li. 

"Now,  Edward,  if  agreeable  to  you,  I  shall  talk  a  little  while 
about  the  mothers  of  Lincoln,  Garfield,  and  Webster,  and  the 
wife  of  Disraeli ;  and  then,  if  time  permits,  I  shall  try  to  make  a 
few  comments  on  the  mothers  of  St.  Augustine,  Luther,  and  the 
\\YsU>ys." 

"I  am  all  attention,  my  dear,"  said  Mr.  Notion  as  he  smiled 
complacently,  and  assumed  his  most  comfortable  posture  in  his 
easy-chair. 

"Let  me  read  to  you,  Edward,  preliminarily  to  what  follows, 
a  short  extract  from  the  book  of  Mrs.  Holloway,  to  which  i  have 
already  referred  you.  She  says  on  page  112:  'The  great  mothers 
of  great  men  and  women  are  few  in  number,  but  are  widely 
known.  The  obscure  and  comparatively  unknown  mothers  of 
men  and  women  of  genius  form  a  great  multitude  of  flitting 
shadows  whose  outlines  and  properties  are  not  easy  to  ascertain. 
Undoubtedly  these  unknown  mothers  must  have  had  strong  char- 
acteristics, or  they  could  not  have  transmitted  great  qualities  to 
their  children.  It  is  the  settled  opinion  of  physiologists  that  the 
mother  has  a  far  greater  influence  than  the  father  in  the  mental 
and  moral  qualities  of  the  offspring.  It  has  even  been  maintained 
that  no  great  man  has  ever  existed  who  had  not  a  great  mother, 
whether  she  was  known  to  fame  as  great  or  not. '  ' 

(128) 


WOMEN'S  IXFI,ITKN<  i;  rrox  GREAT  MEN.  129 

"Come,  come,  Matilda,  isn't  that  going  entirely  too  far? 
Surely  you  do  not  indorse  that  extreme  view  of  the  question.  I 
can't  believe  that  you  are  capable  of  sympathizing  with  those 
women  who  claim  everything  good  for  their  own  sex,  who  appro- 
priate all  the  precious  metal  of  the  ore  of  humanity,  and  leave 
us  poor  fellows  nothing  but  the  tailings." 

"I  hardly  go  that  far,  Edward,  for  I  am  confident  that  at 
least  one  of  our  boys  will  become  a  great  man,  and  J  know  that 
I  am  a  very  ordinary  woman. ' ' 

"You  reach  a  very  sensible  conclusion,  my  dear,"  said  Mr. 
Notion,  "but  you  base  it  upon  a  false  foundation.  Of  course 
your  own  modesty  and  diffidence  prevent  you  from  acknowledging 
your  true  nature,  but  I  can  not  allow  you  to  underrate  yourself 
without  my  emphatic  protest. ' ' 

' '  No  more  flattery,  please, ' '  expostulated  Mrs.  Notion  blush  - 
ingly,  ' '  or  I  shall  terminate  the  conversation.  Mr.  James  Mill, 
in  his  essay  on  'Education,'  lays  much  stress  upon  the  prenatal 
influence  of  the  mother  upon  the  character  and  disposition  of  her 
child,  and  Sir  Walter  Scott,  in  'The  Fortunes  of  Nigel,'  accounts 
for  the  timidity  of  James  the  First,  and  his  extreme  aversion  to 
naked  steel,  by  the  brutal  murder  of  Rizzio  in  the  presence  of 
his  mother  shortly  previous  to  his  birth.  Mrs.  Hollo  way  asserts 
that  the  undertone  of  melancholy  in  Lincoln's  nature  was  directly 
due  to  the  hopeless  state  of  mind  in  which  his  mother  had  fallen 
before  he  was  born.  She  was  in  poor  health,  disappointed,  dis- 
couraged, and  morbidly  sensitive  to  the  sight  of  suffering  in 
others.  Lincoln's  father  was  a  shiftless,  unambitious,  easy-going, 
lazy  man,  and  did  little  to  contribute  to  the  comfort  and  happi- 
ness of  his  wife,  who,  though  a  high-spirited  and  cheerful  girl, 
grew  to  be  a  sad  woman,  shrinking  and  reserved  to  an  extreme. 
Lincoln  was  always  averse  to  speaking  of  his  early  childhood, 
and  when  questioned  as  to  his  mother,  a  cloud  of  mingled  sadness 
and  anguish  came  over  his  face.  That  mother  was  well  endowed, 
unusually  intelligent,  of  keen  sensibilities,  and  possessing  rare 
intuitions.  Dr.  Holland  says  of  her:  'She  had  much  in  her 
nature  that  was  truly  heroic,  and  much  that  shrank  from  the  rude 
life  around  her.  A  great  man  never  drew  his  infant  life  from  a 
purer  or  more  womanly  bosom  than  her  own.'  Lincoln's  father 
was  a  great  talker,  had  an  extensive  fund  of  anecdotes,  and  never 
was  so  much  in  his  element  as  when  sitting  in  the  midst  of  an 
appreciative  circle  telling  stories  and  cracking  jokes.  From  him 


130  DOMESTIC    DUEI>S. 

his  son  Abraham  inherited  and  acquired  his  conversational  powers 
and  rich  vein  of  humor." 

' '  Thank  you  for  that  admission,  Matilda.  Even  small  favors 
are  now  gratefully  received  by  us  poor  men." 

"You  are  facetious,  Edward.  Though  Mrs.  Lincoln  died 
when  her  son  was  only  ten  years  old,  she  had  indelibly  impressed 
herself  upon  his  mind  and  heart.  She  taught  him  to  read  and 
write,  for,  compared  to  those  about  her,  she  was  a  prodigy  of 
learning,  although  possessed  of  the  merest  rudiments  of  an  edu- 
cation. She  praised  and  encouraged  her  boy,  and  tried  her 
utmost,  without  saying  that  she  did  not  want  him  to  be  like  his 
father,  to  describe  the  kind  of  a  man  she  wished  him  to  become. 
At  the  time  of  her  marriage  she  was  a  'slender,  symmetrical 
woman  of  medium  stature,  and  a  brunette,  with  dark  hair,  regular 
features,  and  soft,  sparkling,  hazel  eyes.'  Her  last  days  were 
saddened  by  the  consciousness  that  she  was  leaving  behind  her  a 
motherless,  lonely  child." 

''And  do  you  really  think,  Matilda,  that  this  unfortunate 
woman,  during  the  brief  years  of  her  companionship  with  her 
hero  son,  laid  the  foundations  of  his  greatness?" 

' '  I  do,  indeed,  and  in  this  connection  let  me  quote  Dr.  C.  C. 
Graham,  of  Louisville,  who  says:  '  It  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that 
our  great  and  good  President  owed  his  great  qualities  of  head  and 
heart  to  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln,  to  depreciate  whom  Messrs. 
Lamon  and  Herndon  have  done  their  utmost.  I  am  acquainted 
with  Dennis  Planks,  and  find  a  very  decided  resemblance  in 
many  features  between  him  and  President  Lincoln,  the  difference 
being  in  greater  massiveness  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  features,  not  in 
their  type.  The  mother  of  Abraham  Lincoln  is  entitled  to 
vindication  and  veneration  from  every  American  citizen  who 
loves  his  country,  and  to  whom  the  fame  and  glory  of  its  great- 
ness is  dear.  She  deserves  as  well  and  is  entitled  to  as  much 
honor  at  our  hands  as  the  mother  of  Washington,  for  she  gave  us 
as  great  and  as  good  a  man. ' ' 

"Then,"  exclaimed  Mr.  Notion,  "you  are  not  among  those 
who  attribute  Lincoln's  greatness  more  to  his  step-mother, 
formerly  Mrs.  Johnson,  than  to  his  mother  ? ' ' 

"Most  assuredly  I  am  not,  sir.  While  his  step-mother  was  a 
wise,  industrious,  and  remarkably  affectionate  woman,  who  by 
her  kindness,  justice,  and  appreciation  of  Abraham's  traits,  did 
much  to  render  possible  his  success  in  life,  she  did  not  contribute 


WOMEN'S  INFLUENCE  UPON  GREAT  MEN.  131 

one-thousandth  part  as  much  toward  that  result  as  did  his  mother.' ' 
"And  do  you  think,   my  dear,  that  Lincoln  was  America's 

greatest  man  ?  " 

* '  Again  I  answer  you  with  emphasis,  Yes.     My  words  are  too 

feeble  to  depict  his  genius,  but  let  me  quote  two  stanzas  from  the 

well-known  poem  of  B.  H.  Stoddard: — 

"  '  This  man,  whose  homely  face  you  look  upon, 

WHS  one  of  nature's  masterful,  great  men; 
Born  with  strong  arms  that  unfought  battles  won; 
Direct  of  speech  and  cunning  with  the  pen. 

"  '  Chosen  for  large  designs,  he  had  the  art 

Of  winning  with  his  humor,  and  he  went 
Straight  to  his  mark,  which  was  the  human  heart; 
Wise,  too,  for  what  he  could  not  break  he  bent.'  " 

"I  agree  with  you,  Matilda,  that  Lincoln  was  not  only  the 
greatest  single  human  force  projected  into  our  national  life,  but 
into  this  century.  His  personality  was  unique,  massive,  over- 
powering. He  impressed  himself  deeply  upon  the  history  of 
mankind  by  his  daring  deeds,  and  enriched  the  English  language 
by  his  wise  words,  so  strong  in  structure  and  commanding  in  their 
combination  that  they  are  almost  idiomatic,  and  have  forced 
their  way  into  the  every-day  thought  and  speech  of  the  American 
people.  Yes,  Abraham  Lincoln's  kindness,  humor,  greatness, 
goodness,  and  patriotism  have  become  part  of  the  very  woof  and 
warp  of  our  American  institutions." 

' '  And  now,  Ned,  a  few  words  about  the  mother  of  Garfield. 
Like  nearly  all  the  other  great  mothers  whom  I  have  thus  far 
called  to  your  attention,  Mrs.  Eliza  Garfield  was  a  widow,  with 
four  children,  of  whom  the  eldest  was  only  eleven  years  of  age." 

"I  have  been  very  much  impressed,"  interrupted  Mr.  Notion, 
' '  with  the  fact  to  which  you  now  refer,  that  in  nearly  every 
instance  these  mothers  of  great  sons  were  widows,  called  by 
bereavement  to  bear  the  burdens  of  life  alone,  and  to  train  and 
direct  unassisted  the  developing  characters  and  rising  energies  of 
their  children.  But  do  you  really  think  that  the  loss  of  their 
fathers  by  these  boys,  who  afterwards  attained  greatness,  was  one 
of  the  providential  circumstances  which  favored  their  success?" 

"I  am  very  much  inclined  to  so  believe,"  replied  Mrs.  Notion, 
"unless,  as  hardly  ever  happens,  both  parents  are  unusually 
endowed  with  the  qualities  which  fit  them  to  nourish  and  encour- 
age budding  genius.  Where  the  mother  alone  possesses  those 


132  DOMESTIC  DUELS. 

qualities,  she  is  more  likely  to  manifest  them  in  action  when  the 
father  is  removed  from  the  scene  than  when  he  is  in  the  place  of 
chief  parental  authority  and  responsibility.  In  other  words, 
necessity  would  render  active  what  otherwise  might  remain  merely 
latent  or  dormant.  Besides,  all  possibility  of  weak  or  unwise 
interference  with  the  sagacious  mother's  plans  for  the  develop- 
ment of  her  gifted  son,  would  be  removed  by  the  death  of  her 
husband. ' ' 

"I  can  not  agree  with  you  in  these  views,"  said  Mr.  Xotion, 
"  for  the  simple  reason  that  widows'  sons  have  become  notorious 
for  their  wilduess  and  lack  of  wholesome  home  training.  I  have 
heretofore  attributed  this  fact  to  the  absence  of  the  stern  will  of 
the  father  in  moulding  the  character  and  habits  of  the  child,  and 
I  see  no  good  reason  for  modifying  my  opinion. ' ' 

"What  I  have  said  does  not  militate  in  the  least  against  your 
theory,  Edward,  for  I  expressed  myself  solely  with  reference  to 
great  mothers.  I  also  think  that  with  ordinary  women,  like 
myself,  for  instance,  the  cooperation  of  the  father  is  required  to 
successfully  train  the  children.  But,  to  resume  my  narrative, 
Mrs.  Garfield  was  left  in  a  Ohio  wilderness,  on  a  farm  encum- 
bered with  debt,  and  with  four  small  children  to  care  for  and 
support.  In  this  emergency  her  eldest  son  said:  'I  can  plow 
and  plant,  mother.  I  can  cut  wood  and  milk  the  cows.  I  want 
to  live  here,  and  I  will  work  real  hard.'  Most  nobly  did  he 
keep  his  word.  For  several  months  the  struggle  with  starvation 
was  so  fierce  that  Mrs.  Garfield  only  allowed  herself  one  meal  a 
day  during  a  portion  of  the  time,  and  kept  her  children  on  a 
fixed  allowance  of  food.  But  with  the  harvest  came  food  in 
plenty.  James,  the  future  statesman,  was  only  three  years  old 
when  his  father  died,  and  he  was  the  pet  of  the  family.  AY  hen 
lie  was  four  years  of  age,  his  eldest  brother,  himself  only  twelve, 
bought  him  his  first  pair  of  shoes  out  of  his  first  weeU'<  wages, 
and  his  eldest  sister  carried  him  to  school  on  her  back.  Mrs. 
Garfield  was  of  Huguenot  ancestry,  and  her  fathers  had  been 
preachers  in  an  unbroken  line  of  ten  generations.  She  combined 
the  deepest  piety  with  executive  ability,  perseverance,  ambition, 
and  indomitable  courage,  and  sedulously  trained  her  children  in 
the  Word  of  God,  veneration  for  the  Sabbath  day,  and  the  neces- 
sity of  temperance.  There  was  no  church  near  them,  and  daily 
she  systematically  taught  her  children  from  the  Bible.  Four 
chapters  were  read  each  day,  and  the  stirring  events  and  whole- 


WOMEN'S  INFLUENCE  UPON  GREAT  MEN.  133 

some  truths  of  Scripture  were  discussed  with  interest  by  the  entire 
family  as  they  sat  about  the  fireside." 

"Didn't  she  bring  about  by  her  own  efforts  the  erection  of  a 
schoolhouse  near  her  home?"  inquired  Mr.  Notion. 

"Yes,"  answered  Mrs.  Notion,  "and  she  donated  the  land 
upon  which  it  stood.  When  her  eldest  son  left  home  to  work  in 
the  clearings  of  Michigan,  James  took  his  place,  and,  while  still 
a  boy,  in  addition  to  his  work  on  the  farm,  learned  enough  of 
the  carpenter  trade  to  earn  a  dollar  a  day.  He  took  his  first 
day's  pay  home  to  his  mother,  and  poured  the  pennies  into  her 
lap.  Though  clad  in  home-made  jean,  and  barefooted,  he  was 
proud  and  happy,  for  he  loved  his  mother,  and  was  following  the 
example  of  his  elder  brother,  who  had  given  her  the  wages  of 
six  months'  wood-chopping  with  which  to  build  a  house.  In  the 
words  of  Mrs.  Holloway,  Mrs.  Garfield  'lived  to  see  her  two 
daughters  settled  in  life,  her  eldest  son  a  highly  respected  citizen, 
and  her  youngest  son  pass  from  college  to  the  church,  to  the 
halls  of  legislation,  and  to  the  army. '  When  James  A.  Garfield 
was  inaugurated  as  President  of  the  United  States,  in  1881,  his 
mother  and  his  wife  sat  beside  him,  and  when  the  ceremony  was 
finished,  he  kissed  his  mother,  who  had  been  silently  weeping 
during  the  delivery  of  his  address.  This  noble  woman  was  the 
first  mother  of  a  President  who  ever  occupied  the  White  House 
with  her  son." 

"What  a  pity  that  the  mother's  pride  and  joy  at  the  success 
of  her  boy  were  so  soon  to  be  changed  to  anguish  because  of  his 
cruel  murder  ! ' '  exclaimed  Mr.  Notion  feelingly. 

"Ah,  yes,  dear,  but  it  was  fated  so  to  be!  When  that  sad 
day  in  July  came,  and  she  realized  the  dreadful  tidings  which 
it  brought  her,  in  the  gentlest  manner  possible,  she  suddenly 
exclaimed,  'The  Lord  help  me!'  and  immediately  afterwards 
remarked,  'How  could  anybody  be  so  cold-hearted  as  to  want  to 
kill  my  baby  ?  '  When  after  weary  weeks  of  suffering  he  passed 
away,  she  did  not  despair,  but  still  put  all  her  trust  in  the  Lord, 
whom  both  he  and  she  had  loved  and  served  so  well." 

There  was  a  period  of  silence,  which  was  broken  by  Mr. 
Notion's  saying:  "And  yet  Garfield  had  his  faults.  We  like 
to  think  of  him  as  perf'ect,  but  Senator  Sherman  in  his  recent 
work — 

"There,  there,  Edward,  please  don't  say  anything  against  our 
martyred  President,  lie  was  only  human,  after  all,  and  doubt- 


134  DOMESTIC  DUKI.S. 

less  had  a  weak  side  to  his  nature,  but  I  do  not  wish  to  think  of 
it.  Let  us  rather  change  the  subject,  and  speak  of  the  noble 
mother  of  Daniel  Webster.  This  great  man's  earliest  lessons 
were  learned  from  her,  and  she  took  especial  pains  to  instil 
scriptural  knowledge  into  his  youthful  mind.  She  was  the  first 
to  recognize  that  he  possessed  unusual  gilts  of  intellect,  and  she 
so  arranged  her  duties  as  to  be  able  to  devote  much  time  to  his 
instruction.  So  well  did  she  succeed  in  this  that  when  he  went 
to  school,  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  he  took  a  higher  place  than 
students  who-  were  considerably  his  senior.  When  the  time 
came  to  send  her  two  sons  to  college,  she  proposed  that  the  farm 
be  sold,  and  the  proceeds  devoted  to  the  boys'  education,  upon 
their  promise  to  support  their  parents  in  their  old  age.  Mr. 
Webster  at  first  objected  to  this,  but  so  strong  was  her  influence 
with  him,  and  so  unflinching  were  her  own  trust  and  courage, 
that  he  finally  yielded,  and  Daniel  Webster  was  given  the 
opportunity  to  fit  himself  for  an  illustrious  and  useful  career. 
Mrs.  Webster  had  a  powerful  intellect,  an  ardent  ambition,  and 
a  determined  spirit.  Of  Puritan  ancestry,  she  was  brave  and 
true,  and  to  her  more  than  to  all  other  human  agencies,  Amer- 
ica's greatest  orator  owed  his  brilliant  genius  and  marvelous 
success  in  the  judicial  forum,  the  halls  of  legislation,  and  the 
political  rostrum." 

"But  what  of  his  father,  Matilda?  " 

"Oh,"  replied  Mi's.  Notion  carelessly,  "he  was  a  good  enough 
sort  of  a  man,  but  very  little  beyond  the  ordinary  in  any  way, 
and  there  was  certainly  nothing  either  in  his  life  or  character 
upon  which  any  one  could  base  the  argument  that  Daniel 
Webster  inherited  his  wondrous  faculties  from  him!" 

"Well,  Matilda,  I  suppose  I  shall  have  to  let  that  pass, 
especially  as  I  am  anxious  to  hear  what  you  have  to  say  of  the 
wife  of  that  remarkable  and  self-made  man,  Benjamin  Disraeli, 
Earl  of  Beaconsfield,  and  prime  minister  of  England." 

"Very  well,  Edward.  She  was  a  widow  when  he  married 
her,  and  was  undoubtedly  a  potent  factor  in  shaping  his  high 
destiny.  She  brought  to  him  great  wealth,  as  well  as  wifely 
sympathy  and  love,  and  to  her  he  ever  attributed  a  great  part  of 
his  success  in  statesmanship.  She  was  a  woman  of  unusual 
intelligence  and  sagacity,  and,  besides  her  literary  ability,  pos- 
sessed rare  political  acumen.  Her  advice  was  invaluable  to 
him,  and  he  prized  it  highly.  He  dedicated  his  novel  'Sibyl' 


WOMEN'S  INFLUENCE  UPON  GREAT  MEN.  135 

to  her  iu  the  following  language:  'I  would  inscribe  these  volumes 
to  one  whose  noble  spirit  and  gentle  nature  ever  prompt  her  to 
sympathize  with  suffering;  to  one  whose  sweet  voice  has  often 
encouraged,  and  whose  taste  and  judgment  have  ever  guided 
their  pages;  the  most  severe  of  critics,  but  a  perfect  wife.'  ' 

"No  higher  encomium  than  that  would  be  possible,"  said 
Mr.  Notion  with  fervency.  "But  you  say  nothing  about 
Disraeli's  mother." 

"Very  little  is  known  about  her,  Edward,  and  I  can  only 
say  that  her  name  was  Maria,  and  that  she  was  the  daughter  of 
Mr.  George  Bassoi,  a  retired  London  merchant.  I  may  add 
that  Isaac  Disraeli,  the  father  of  the  statesman,  conformed  to 
Christianity,  and  had  his  son  baptized  at  the  age  of  twelve,  and 
that  Mrs.  Lewis,  the  wife  of  Beaconsfield,  was  an  Englishwoman 
and  a  Christian." 

"I  must  insist,  Matilda,  that  Disraeli  inherited  his  talents 
from  his  father,  who  was  a  well-educated  gentleman,  of  marked 
literary  tastes  and  attainments,  and  who  did  his  utmost  to  encour- 
age and  improve  the  mind  of  his  son.  In  order  that  he  might 
easily  refer  to  books  in  the  British  Museum,  he  had  a  suite  of 
apartments  in  the  Adelphi,  London,  and  there  it  was  that  his 
son  Benjamin  was  born." 

"I  suppose,  as  usual,  that  I  must  let  you  have  your  own 
way, ' '  remarked  Mrs.  Notion.  ' '  But  I  desire  now  to  describe 
St.  Monica,  the  mother  of  Augustine.  Born  of  Roman  parentage, 
near  the  battle-field  of  Zama,  in  Northern  Africa,  in  the  year 
332,  she  was  bred  in  the  Christian  faith,  but  married  the  heathen 
freeman  Patricius,  who  did  not  embrace  Christianity  until  a  few 
years  before  his  death,  which  took  place  when  Augustine,  his  son, 
was  seventeen  years  of  age.  Monica  was  persecuted  by  her 
heathen  mother-in-law;  and  her  husband,  who  had  a  violent 
temper,  abused  her  and  mocked  her  high  standard  of  virtue. 
But  she  endured  with  meekness,  and  returned  good  for  evil,  until 
her  persecutors  were  silenced,  and  learned  to  admire  her  and 
revere  the  faith  which  she  so  sweetly  exemplified.  During  all 
the  long  years  of  his  wild  youth  and  wicked  manhood,  this 
saintly  mother  prayed  for  the  conversion  of  her  wayward  son. 
At  Carthage  he  studied  rhetoric,  heathen  literature,  and  philos- 
ophy, and  became  imbued  with  skepticism.  It  is  related  that 
one  night,  when  his  mother  slept,  there  appeared  to  her  a  youth 
of  shining  aspect,  who  had,  as  it  were,  the  face  of  an  angel,  and 


136  DOMESTIC    DUKLS. 

who  whispered  words  of  hope  and  consolation  to  her  regarding 
the  future  conversion  of  her  son.  She  herself  seemed  to  be  stand- 
ing safely  upon  a  bridge,  which  no  storm  could  shake  or  waters 
of  destruction  reach.  The  radiant  messenger  assured  her  that 
where  she  was  there  should  her  son  be  also.  From  this  vision 
she  drew  unfailing  solace  through  all  the  years  of  waiting  which 
still  remained.  At  the  age  of  thirty  Augustine  was  at  Rome, 
and  the  despondent  tone  of  his  letters  induced  his  mother  to  follow 
him  there.  The  voyage  was  a  long  and  stormy  one,  and  when 
she  reached  the  eternal  city,  her  son  had  gone  to  Milan.  Undis- 
mayed, she  followed  him  thither.  It  was  in  that  city  that  he 
gave  his  heart  to  Christ.  This  was  largely  due  to  the  preaching 
of  St.  Ambrose,  but  the  immediate  occasion  of  his  change  of  life 
was  singular,  and  if  you  care  to  listen,  I  shall  take  pleasure  in 
narrating  it." 

' '  I  am  absorbed  in  your  narrative,  Matilda.  Do  not  shorten 
it  in  any  way." 

"An  old  friend  from  Africa,  who  was  a  devoted  Christian,  and 
at  the  same  time  a  military  officer  of  the  emperor,  paid  them  a 
visit  at  Milan,  and  told  them  of  his  travels  and  conversion. 
Much  affected  by  the  story,  Augustine  and  his  friend  Alypius 
went  into  the  garden,  where  the  former,  soon  leaving  his  compan- 
ion, threw  himself  under  a  fig  tree,  and  began  to  weep.  Suddenly 
a  child's  voice  seemed  to  reach  him,  singing  and  repeating  the 
words,  '  Take  and  read. '  These  words  struck  him  as  a  revela- 
tion from  heaven.  Seizing  a  copy  of  the  New  Testament,  he 
opened  it  at  the  concluding  verses  of  the  thirteenth  chapter  of 
Paul's  epistle  to  the  Romans.  Of  course  you  recollect  them, 
Edward. ' ' 

' '  I  have  a  general  idea  of  them,  my  dear,  but  my  memory  is 
not  as  distinct  regarding  them  as  I  could  wish." 

"Well,  they  are  as  follows:  'The  night  is  far  spent,  the  day 
is  at  hand ;  let  us  therefore  cast  off  the  works  of  darkness,  and  let 
us  put  on  the  armor  of  light.  Let  us  walk  honestly,  as  in  the 
day;  not  in  rioting  and  drunkenness,  not  in  chambering  and 
wantonness,  not  in  strife  and  envying.  But  put  ye  on  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  make  not  provision  for  the  flesh,  to  fulfil  the 
lusts  thereof.'  ' 

"Those  verses  were  certainly  marvelously  adapted,  Matilda, 
to  a  man  in  Augustine's  state  of  mind,  and  with  his  previous 
history. ' ' 


WOMEN'S  INFLUENCE  UPON  GREAT  MEN.  137 

"That  is  just  what  he  thought,"  replied  Mrs.  Notion,  "for, 
to  use  his  own  words,  '  Instantly,  by  a  light  as  it  were,  of  serenity 
infused  into  my  heart,  all  the  darkness  of  doubt  vanished  away.' 
From  that  time  until  her  death  a  beautiful  spiritual  union  was 
superadded  to  the  natural  affection  which  subsisted  between 
mother  and  son,  and  many  rapturous  talks  concerning  high  and 
holy  things  did  they  have  together.  Augustine,  the  greatest 
intellectual  accession  to  Christianity  since  St.  Paul,  did  much  to 
stay  the  heresies  and  skepticism  which  were  sapping  the  very  life 
of  the  Western  Church.  His  glorious  genius  and  marvelous  gifts 
of  mind  and  soul  were  consecrated  to  the  service  of  God.  His 
was  one  of  the  loftiest  spirits  that  has  ever  pored  over  the 
problems  of  humanity,  or  dived  into  the  profoundest  depths  of 
life's  mystery  and  philosophy.  Of  his  mother  he  thus  spoke:  'It 
is  to  my  mother  that  I  owe  everything.  If  I  am  thy  child,  O 
my  God,  it  is  because  thou  gavest  me  such  a  mother!  If  I  prefer 
the  truth  to  all  other  things,  it  is  the  point  of  my  mother's  teach- 
ing. If  I  did  not  long  ago  perish  in  sin  and  misery,  it  is  because 
of  the  long  and  faithful  tears  with  which  she  pleaded  for  me. ' 
Matthew  Arnold  thus  alludes  to  St.  Monica's  death  far  away 
from  her  beloved  home  in  Africa: — 

"  '  O  could  thy  grave  at  home,  at  Carthage,  be! 
Care  not  for  that,  and  lay  me  where  I  fall. 
Everywhere  heard  will  be  the  judgment  call. 
But  at  God's  altar,  O  remember  me!  '  " 

' '  If  that  last  line  is  to  be  seriously  taken ,  Matilda,  it  is  intended 
to  convey  the  idea  that  St.  Monica  believed  in  the  doctrine  of 
prayers  for  the  dead. ' ' 

' '  Perhaps  she  did,  Edward,  but  now  I  shall  have  something  to 
say  about  a  woman  whose  son  did  not  believe  that  or  any  other 
distinctively  Romish  doctrine.  I  allude  to  Margaret  Lindemann, 
the  mother  of  Luther.  Her  son  Martin,  the  great  reformer,  was 
the  eldest  of  seven  children.  A  virtuous,  faithful,  God-fearing 
woman,  she  brought  up  her  children  kindly  and  lovingly,  although 
with  the  severity  which  was  almost  universally  adopted  by  parents 
in  those  times.  Often  when  Luther's  father  gave  him  an  unusu- 
ally severe  whipping,  she  took  him  in  her  arms  and  kissed  his 
tears  away.  The  family  was  very  poor,  and  the  mother  often 
carried  wood  on  her  back  to  help  her  husband,  a  wood-cutter, 
to  earn  a  livelihood  for  their  children." 


138  DOMESTIC  Drr:i.s. 

"  I  don't  suppose,  Matilda,  that  you  have  been  able  to  find 
out  very  much  about  the  mother  of  Luther." 

"No,  Ned,  the  accounts  are  very  meager  concerning  her,  but 
the  mother  of  such  a  son  could  not  have  been  an  ordinary  woman. 
While  Luther  has  been  cruelly  misrepresented,  he  was  undoubtedly 
one  of  the  world's  greatest  men,  and  I  can  not  more  appropriately 
'close  what  I  have  to  say  of  him  than  by  quoting  the  words  of 
Archdeacon  Hare,  who  says  relative  to  his  genius  as  an  orator 
and  preacher:  '  In  the  highest  qualities  of  eloquence,  in  the 
faculty  of  presenting  grand  truths,  moral  and  spiritual  ideas, 
clearly,  vividly,  in  words  which  elevate  and  enlighten  men's 
minds,  and  stir  their  hearts,  and  control  their  wills,  Luther  seems 
incomparably  superior  to  Bossnet,  almost  as  superior  as  Shakes- 
peare to  Racine. '  As  a  thinker,  writer,  and  theologian,  he  was 
one  of  the  master  minds  of  our  race." 

' '  And  now,  my  dear,  tell  me,  as  you  promised,  something  about 
the  mother  of  John  and  Charles  Wesley." 

"Susannah  Wesley  was  one  of  the  most  wonderful  women 
who  has  graced  this  planet.  Of  good  family,  fine  education, 
powerful  mind,  and  a  heart  as  sincere  and  earnest  as  ever 
throbbed  in  human  breast,  she  was  a  paragon  of  excellence, 
beauty,  and  grace.  Her  mind  was  highly  cultivated,  and  her 
curriculum  included  Greek,  Latin,  French,  logic,  and  meta- 
physics. This  lovely  and  accomplished  lady  married  Rev. 
Samuel  Wesley,  a  clergyman  in  the  Church  of  England.  She 
was  the  mother  of  nineteen  children,  whom  she  trained  and 
nurtured  with  a  love,  fidelity,  and  wisdom  unsurpassed  in  the 
annals  of  maternity.  In  addition  to  the  education  of  these  chil- 
dren, which  she  attended  to  personally,  she  transacted  business, 
wrote  letters,  and  enjoyed  social  conversation.  Her  husband  was 
a  bad  financier,  and  she  managed  the  affairs  of  the  rectory,  keep- 
ing a  sharp  eye  on  the  tithes  and  glebe.  She  was  systematic  in 
all  that  she  did,  and  ruled  her  household  with  admirable  skill 
and  vigor.  Her  word  with  her  children  was  law. ' ' 

"Don't  you  think,  Matilda,  that  this  woman  must  have  enjoyed 
a  powerful  physical  constitution,  in  order  to  be  able  to  hear  up 
under  this  constant  and  long-continued  strain  ?" 

"Yes,  indeed,  she  was  certainly  rarely  endowed  in  that  par- 
ticular. But  her  scheme  of  household  government  is  interesting 
and  instructive.  Her  children  were  never  allowed  to  eat  between 
meals;  were  washed  and  put  to  bed  at  8  o'clock,  the  elder 


WOMEN'S  INFLUENCE  UPON  GREAT  MEN.  139 

children  assisting  the  younger;  were  taught  the  Lord's  prayer  as 
soon  as  they  could  speak;  were  never  permitted  to  be  rude  to 
each  other;  were  made  to  study  six  hours  a  day;  were  prohibited 
from  playing  or  talking  loudly  in  the  street  or  garden  without 
her  permission;  were  taught  the  alphabet  in  one  day  at  the  age 
of  five,  with  two  exceptions,  Mary  and  Anne,  who  required  a 
day  and  a  half  to  learn  it;  were  taught  to  sing  hymns  every 
morning  when  school  opened,  and  at  the  close  of  the  day's  work. 
The  elder  children  read  the  Psalms  for  the  day  out  of  the  prayer- 
book,  and  a  chapter  of  the  Bible  to  the  younger  ones." 

"It  is  not  at  all  surprising,"  remarked  Mr.  Notion,  "that 
two  of  the  sons  of  this  great  woman  should  have  become  world- 
famous.  I  would  that  children  nowadays  were  trained  that  way." 

"While  she  was  too  severe,"  said  Mrs.  Notion,  "I  greatly 
admire  her  system.  Her  means  were  justified  by  the  results. 
Through  her  sous  she  became  the  mother  of  Methodism,  that  great 
religious  system  which  has  changed  the  course  of  history,  and 
now  numbers  millions  of  members,  all  of  whom  rise  and  call  her 
blessed.  But  I  must  hurry  on,  for  I  find  that  I  am  taking  up 
too  much  time  in  my  enumeration  of  the  great  mothers  of  history. 
My  material  is  so  ample  that  I  must  select  only  the  most  striking 
and  conspicuous  instances,  and  can  hardly  more  than  mention 
them.  The  mother  of  Charles  Dickens  awakened  his  earliest 
passion  for  reading,  and  taught  him  the  first  rudiments  of  English, 
and  also  a  little  Latin." 

' '  But  you  must  admit,  Matilda,  that  Dickens  always  loved  his 
father  better  than  he  did  his  mother,  a  weak,  careless  woman, 
who  utterly  failed  to  discern  or  appreciate  the  genius,  or  sympa- 
thize with  the  aspirations,  of  her  sensitive,  shrinking,  delicate 
son.  Of  his  father,  however,  he  always  spoke  kindly,  but  he 
could  not  help  feeling  in  after  life  that  both  parents  had  been 
remiss  in  his  early  training  and  education.  He  says:  'It  is 
wonderful  to  me  that,  even  after  my  descent  into  the  poor  little 
drudge  I  had  been  since  we  came  to  London,  no  one  had  com- 
passion enough  on  me — a  child  of  singular  abilities,  quick,  eager, 
delicate,  and  soon  hurt,  bodily  or  mentally — to  suggest  that 
something  might  have  been  spared,  as  certainly  it  might  have 
been,  to  place  me  at  any  common  school.  Our  friends,  I  take  it, 
were  tired  out.  No  one  made  any  sign.  My  father  and  mother 
were  quite  satisfied.'  I  am  glad  to  know,  though,  that  Dickens 
made  comfortable  provision  for  both  his  parents  in  their  old  age." 


140  DOMESTIC   Dl'KLS. 

"His  father  was  much  more  responsible  than  his  mother 
for  his  early  neglect, "  replied  Mrs.  Notion,  "  because  the  former, 
although  a  government  employee  with  a  steady  income,  let  himself 
drift  into  debt,  and  was  imprisoned  at  one  time  by  his  creditors. 
Of  Thackeray's  mother  there  is  nothing  especial  to  tell,  and,  as 
you  know,  his  unfortunate  wife  became  insane  after  bearing  him 
three  children.  Cowper's  mother,  a  noble  woman,  died  when  he 
was  six  years  old;  but  he  never  forgot  her  gentle,  loving  com- 
panionship, and  has  immortalized  her  in  his  verse.  Of  the 
mother  of  Goethe,  that  profound  and  mysterious  poet  and  philos- 
opher, George  Henry  Lewes  says:  'She  is  one  of  the  pleasantest 
figures  in  German  literature,  and  one  standing  out  with  greater 
vividness  than  almost  any  other.  Her  simple,  hearty,  joyous, 
and  affectionate  nature  endeared  her  to  all.  She  was  the  delight 
of  children,  the  favorite  of  poets  and  princes.'  And  yet  it  must 
be  said  that  neither  of  Goethe's  parents  was  possessed  of  unusual 
mental  powers,  though  his  mother  was  a  wonderful  story-teller, 
and  did  much  in  this  way  to  develop  and  stimulate  his  imagina- 
tion as  a  child." 

"And  can't  you  say  a  good  word  for  his  father?"  asked  Mr. 
Notion  pleadingly. 

' '  Oh,  yes,  Edward,  he  was  a  very  respectable,  methodical  sort 
of  man,  with  a  keen  relish  for  the  curibus  odds  and  ends  of 
knowledge.  And  now,  having  gratified  your  desire,  I  shall 
resume  my  summary,  if  thus  it  may  be  called.  Jean  Paul 
Bichter's  mother  was  a  good,  true,  pious  woman,  the  wife  of  a 
German  pastor,  who  died  when  Jean  was  sixteen.  Madame 
Necker,  the  mother  of  Madame  De  Stael,  was  beautiful  and 
brilliant.  Richard  Brinsley  Sheridan  inherited  his  literary 
talents  from  his  mother,  who  was  a  popular  author.  Anthony 
Trollope's  mother  was  a  well-known  novelist  and  satirist.  Alex- 
ander Humboldt,  the  famous  scientist,  explorer,  and  discoverer, 
was  indebted  to  his  mother,  a  clever  and  capable  woman,  for  his 
remarkably  thorough  education,  which  he  derived  largely  from 
private  tutors.  Lamartine  revered  the  memory  of  his  mother, 
who  did  much  by  her  sympathy,  encouragement,  and  companion- 
ship to  unfold  his  genius.  She  was  a  woman  of  fine  literary 
talents.  Carlyle  described  his  mother  as  the  best  of  all  mothers, 
to  whom  he  owed  endless  gratitude.  'By  God's  mercy,'  said  he, 
'she  is  still  left  as  a  head  and  center  to  us  all,  and  may  yet  cheer 
us  with  her  pious  heroism  through  many  toils,  if  God  so  please.' 


WOMEN'S  INFLUENCE  UPON  GREAT  MEN.  141 

Samuel  Johnson  had  a  good  mother,  and  a  wife  whose  memory 
he  affectionately  cherished  for  thirty  years  after  her.  death.  This 
great  man,  whom  Carlyle  calls  in  his  'Heroes  and  Hero  Wor- 
shipers '  a  giant,  invincible  soul,  the  greatest  soul  in  all  England, 
was  great  as  a  boy.  When  ten  years  of  age  he  penned  in  his 
diary — that  diary  which  he  had  kept  from  his  earliest  years — a 
resolve,  which,  though  written  in  Latin,  may  be  thus  translated : 
'  I  have  bidden  farewell  to  sloth,  and  intend  henceforth  to  turn  a 
deaf  ear  to  the  strains  of  that  siren.' ' 

"What  about  the  mothers  of  Shakespeare  and  Milton?" 
inquired  Mr.  Notion. 

' '  That  is  a  hard  question  to  answer,  Edward,  for  scarcely  any- 
thing is  known  of  them.  But  Milton  was  not  without  plenty  of 
feminine  help,  as  he  had  three  wives  and  three  daughters." 

' '  And  they  say,  Matilda,  that  his  daughters  treated  him 
badly." 

"And  no  wonder,"  said  Mrs.  Notion,  "for  he  seemed  to 
regard  them  as  mere  machines,  created  for  his  especial  comfort 
and  convenience.  In  order  that  they  might  read  and  write  for 
him  during  his  blindness,  he  taught  them  in  a  superficial  fashion 
five  or  six  foreign  languages,  but  they  learned  them  mechanically, 
and  he  never  took  the  pains  to  inform  them  of  the  meaning  of  the 
words  which  they  read  to  him.  And  now  a  word  about  the 
mother  of  Robert  Burns,  the  wondrous  Scottish  poet.  She  was 
fair  to  look  upon,  with  fine  complexion,  and  beautiful  dark  eyes. 
Sagacious,  sincerely  religious,  quick  in  reading  character,  cheer- 
ful, neat,  industrious,  and  with  her  memory  well  stored  with 
old  songs,  ballads,  and  Scotch  traditions,  she  was  a  remarkable 
woman  for  one  in  her  humble  station  in  life.  The  father  of 
Burns  was  also  a  person  of  superior  character,  and  was  described 
by  Murdock  as  by  far  the  best  man  he  ever  knew.  Mrs.  Burns, 
like  the  mothers  of  Goethe  and  Humboldt,  spent  many  years  of 
widowhood.  The  mother  of  Leon  Gambetta  was  one  of  the 
strongest  of  characters,  and  to  her  was  her  son  indebted,  not 
only  for  inherited  abilities,  but  for  the  advantages  that  enabled 
him  to  become  a  statesman.  She  was  of  Jewish  extraction,  and 
was  mentally  greatly  the  superior  of  her  husband.  Immanuel 
Kant,  the  great  German  philosopher,  who  is  just  beginning  to  be 
appreciated  in  English-speaking  countries,  said  of  his  parents, 
who  were  poor  tradespeople,  that  'never,  not  even  once  in  his 
knowledge,  did  they  say  an  unbecoming  word  or  do  an  unworthy 


142  DOMESTIC    DLIKI.S. 

act,'  He  described  his  mother  a*  'a  lovely,  affectionate,  pious, 
and  upright  mother,  who  led  her  children  to  the  fear  of  God  In 
means  of  pious  instruction  and  a  virtuous  example.'  She  had 
eleven  children.  Schiller's  mother  had  tastes  and  acquirements 
rare  in  women  of  her  rank;  she  was  a  good  musician,  fond  of 
poetry,  and  wrote  it,  while  the  gentleness  of  her  temper  gave  a 
certain  refinement  to  her  manners.  I  learn  this  from  Dr. 
Charles  I.  Hempel,  one  of  the  poet's  biographers,  who  wisely 
says,  'No  observation  is  at  once  more  true  and  more  hackneyed — 
that  it  is  to  the  easy  lessons  of  a  mother  men  of  genius  have- 
usually  owed  their  earliest  inspiration.'  Mendelssohn  and 
Beethoven  were  both  blessed  with  good  mothers,  and  the  mother 
of  the  former  was  a  woman  of  great  natural  gifts  and  excep- 
tional attainments.  The  mother  of  Isaac  Watts  had  strong 
characteristics,  and  was  singularly  self-possessed  and  dignified. ' ' 

"You  have  not  mentioned  Byron,"  remarked  Mr.  Notion. 
"His  case  I  suppose  you  regard  as  exceptional,  as  his  mother 
was  a  woman  of  violent  temper,  who  derided  his  deformed  foot, 
and  his  wife  refused  to  live  Avith  him." 

"Yes,"  replied  Mrs.  Notion,  "his  case  was  exceptional,  and 
I  do  not  care  to  discuss  it.  The  great  Chateaubriand  attributed 
to  his  mother  the  restoration  of  his  faith  in  religion,  and  credits 
her  for  the  impulse  that  brought  about  the  composition  of  his 
great  work  on  the  'Genius  of  Christianity.'  The  poet  Gray 
never  mentioned  his  mother  without  a  sigh.  He  owed  every- 
thing to  her,  as  she  saved  his  life  in  early  infancy  by  her  pres- 
ence of  mind,  and  afterwards  earned  by  her  own  industry  the 
money  needed  to  send  him  to  Eton  and  Cambridge.  Buffon, 
the  celebrated  naturalist,  said  that  he  took  after  his  mother,  of 
whom  he  always  spoke  in  terms  of  the  highest  admiration  and 
praise.  The  mother  of  Fenelon  was  the  daughter  of  a  noble 
house,  and  was  naturally  endowed  with  beauty,  grace>  and  a 
keen,  discriminating  judgment.  She  conducted  his  education 
until  lie  was  twelve  years  of  age.  The  poets  Campbell,  Crabbe, 
and  Cowley  were  all  much  indebted  to  their  mothers;  and  the 
mother  of  Thomson,  who  also  attained  high  reputation  as  a 
writer  of  poetry,  earned  hei-self  the  means  for  his  education  at 
Edinburgh.  Abigail  Adams,  the  wife  of  John  Adams,  and 
the  mother  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  has  been  called  the  greatest 
of  American  women.  She  was  descended  from  four  generations 
of  preachers.  Having  a  powerful  mind,  she  delighted  in  the 


WOMEN'S  INFLUENCE  UPON  GREAT  MEN.  143 

exercise  of  her  thinking  and  reasoning  faculties,  and,  though 
she  never  went  to  school,  she  gathered  a  vast  fund  of  knowledge 
by  her  own  efforts,  and  without  any  systematic  instruction.  Her 
letters  are  marvels  of  wisdom,  patriotism,  statesmanship,  and 
philosophic  thought.  Her  husband  said  in  one  of  his  letters  to 
her:  'In  reading  history  you  will  generally  observe,  when  you 
find  a  great  character,  whether  a  general,  a  statesman,  or  a 
philosopher,  some  female  about  him,  either  in  the  character  of  a 
mother,  wife,  or  sister,  who  had  knowledge  and  ambition  above 
the  ordinary  level  of  women,  and  that  much  of  his  eminence  is 
owing  to  her  precept,  example,  or  investigation  in  some  shape 
or  other.'  " 

"Why,"  exclaimed  Mr.  Notion,  "  that  almost  sounds  like  your 
own  proposition,  which  you  have  been  trying  for  some  time  to 
demonstrate! " 

"  But  listen,  Ned,  to  the  testimony  of  John  Quincy  Adams  to 
the  worth  of  his  mother:  'My  mother  was  an  angel  upon  earth. 
She  was  a  minister  of  blessing  to  all  human  beings  within  her 
sphere  of  action.  Her  heart  was  the  abode  of  heavenly  purity. 
She  had  no  feelings  but  of  kindness  and  beneficence;  yet  her  mind 
was  as  firm  as  her  temper  was  mild  and  gentle.  She  had  known 
sorrow,  but  her  sorrow  was  silent.  She  had  completed  within 
less  than  a  month  of  her  seventy-fourth  year.  Had  she  lived 
to  the  age  of  the  patriarchs,  every  day  of  her  life  would  have 
been  filled  with  clouds  of  goodness  and  love.  She  had  been 
fifty-four  years  the  delight  of  my  father's  heart.  If  there  are 
existence  and  retribution  beyond  the  grave,  my  mother  is  happy. 
But,  if  virtue  alone  is  happiness  below,  never  was  existence  upon 
earth  more  blessed  than  hers.'  And  this  was  penned  when  her 
son  was  himself  advanced  in  years.  I  have  far  from  exhausted 
my  material,  but  I  have  said  enough  on  this  branch  of  the  subject, 
and  feel  that  I  have  made  good  my  promise,  and  have  at  least 
made  out  a  prima  facie  case  to  the  effect  that  all  great  men  owe 
their  greatness  to  some  extent  to  the  helping  hand  of  some 
member  of  my  sex." 

"You  begin  to  look  sleepy,  my  dear,  and  will  no  doubt  be 
glad  to  hear,  before  retiring,  another  anecdote  illustrating  the 
genius  of  your  sex,  and  which  you  have  doubtless  overlooked." 

Mrs.  Notion  brightened  up  and  asked  with  evident  curiosity 
what  it  was. 

"It  relates,   Matilda,   to  the  wife  of  Sir  Walter  Scott.     As 


144  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

they  were  rambling  about  their  estate  one  day,  he  said,  'Ah,  it' a 
no  wonder  that  poets  from  the  earliest  ages  have  made  the  lamb 
the  emblem  of  peace  and  innocence! '  To  this  Lady  Scott  replied 
with  charming  simplicity,  'They  are  indeed  delightful  animals, 
especially  with  mint  sauce. ' ' 

Mrs.  Notion  smiled  with  great  eifort,  and  began  her  prepara- 
tions for  retiring. 


Mrs.  Notion  Gives  Her  Ideas  of  Modern 
Inventions. 

' '  Occupation  is  the  best  safeguard  for  women  under  all  circumstances 
— mental,  or  physical,  or  both.  Cupid  extinguishes  his  torch  in  the 
atmosphere  of  industry." — Madame  de  S£vign6. 

"My  dear,"  remarked  Mr.  Notion,  as  he  looked  over  the 
evening  paper,  "  I  see  that  the  electric  barouche  is  now  a  practi- 
cal vehicle,  and  that  in  the  well-paved  streets  of  Paris  fourteen 
miles  an  hour  is  its  rate  of  speed. ' ' 

"Good,  good!"  replied  Mrs.  Notion  with  enthusiasm. 

' '  I  can  understand, ' '  said  Mr.  Notion,  with  an  expression  of 
surprise,  "why  you  should  rejoice  in  the  progress  of  modern 
invention;  but  I  am  at  a  loss  to  see  any  particular  reason  why 
you  should  exult  over  the  introduction  of  the  electric  carriage." 

' '  You  are  a  mere  man,  my  dear, ' '  smili ngly  answered  his 
wife,  "and  your  inability  to  comprehend  my  feelings  is  natural 
and  excusable.  Your  male  curiosity  is  doubtless  aroused.  I  do 
not  wish  to  leave  it  unsatisfied.  When  the  electric  barouche 
becomes  cheap  and  practicable,  it  will  come  into  general  use,  and 
horses  will  no  longer  be  utilized  for  the  propulsion  of  vehicles 
through  the  streets  of  cities.  Immediately  a  multitude  of  men 
Avill  be  thrown  out  of  employment.  The  unfortunate  fellows  who 
have  worked  with  horses  all  their  lives,  and  who  are  skilled  and 
daring  in  their  management,  will  find  their  occupation  gone. 
Their  work  is  not  suited  for  women.  It  requires  too  much 
strength,  courage,  and  steadiness  of  nerve.  In  these  qualities  I 
freely  concede  the  superiority  of  men  to  women.  But  each  new 
invention  places  a  heavier  discount  on  animal  strength  and 
physical  courage.  Women  are  no  longer  the  helpless  victims  of 
male  cruelty.  Inequalities  of  weight,  nerve,  and  muscle  all 
disappear  in  the  presence  of  a  little  revolver,  possessed  by  a 
woman  who  knows  how  to  use  it.  To  return,  however,  to  the 
electric  carriage.  I  predict  that  it  will  give  employment  to  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  women  in  all  parts  of  the  world." 
10  (145) 


146  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

"Why,  how  do  you  reach  that  conclusion?"  inquired  Mr. 
Notion. 

' '  Easily,  Ned, ' '  was  his  wife' s  answer.  ' '  As  I  said,  women 
are  not  as  strong  as  men,  and  never  will  be.  In  all  occupations 
where  muscular  vigor,  powers  of  endurance,  and  nerves  of  steel 
are  required,  women  are  at  a  terrible  disadvantage  in  their  com- 
petition with  men,  and  the  men  retain  control.  But  the  progress 
of  modern  civilization  is  all  in  the  direction  of  labor-saving 
machinery.  Each  new  invention  either  shifts  from  humanity  to 
motors  the  application  of  force  and  overcoming  of  the  inertia  of 
matter,  or  opens  up  new  and  broad  vistas  of  light  and  easy 
employment.  It  follows  that  those  realms  of  industry  where 
great  human  physical  exertion  is  required,  are  constantly  being 
reduced  to  smaller  proportions.  In  short,  machinery  is  doing  all 
the  hard,  rough  work,  and  only  light  and  easy  work  is  left  for 
humanity  to  do.  Brute  force  is  at  a  discount,  and  deftness, 
speed,  skill,  intelligence,  and  reliability  are  the  qualities  now  in 
demand.  In  all  of  these  except  intelligence  I  confidently  assert 
that  women  excel  men." 

"Admitting  for  the  present  that  you  are  right  in  this  last 
statement,"  suggested  Mr.  Notion,  "how  does  it  follow  that 
women  are  to  do  the  work  connectc'd  with  electric  carriages? 
Let  us  settle  that  matter  first.  I  don't  see  any  women  among 
the  motormen  and  conductors  of  our  electric  cars. ' ' 

"Neither  do  I  see  any  on  our  electric  cars,"  replied  Mrs. 
Notion,  "but  in  other  countries  women  have  long  enjoyed  a 
monopoly  of  that  kind  of  work.  In  Chile,  for  instance,  the 
street-cars  are  managed  exclusively  by  pretty  girls,  whose  neat- 
ness, politeness,  and  close  attention  to  duty,  make  the  car  service 
first-class,  and  attract  a  large  patronage  from  the  traveling  public. 
I  believe  that  the  time  is  near  when  women  will  fill  positions  of 
that  sort  in  nearly  every  country  in  the  world." 

"Then  you  are  of  the  opinion,"  said  her  husband,  "that  new 
inventions  are  more  especially  helpful  to  women  than  to  men  ?" 

"Yes,  Edward,  I  certainly  am,"  was  .Mrs.  Notion's  answer. 
"Consider  the  telegraph.  A  vast  majority  of  operators  are 
women.  The  work  was  originally  performed  almost  entirely  by 
men,  but  the  women  soon  demonstrated  their  ability  to  do  it 
better  and  for  less  pay,  and  so  they  now  fill  most  of  the  posi- 
tions. The  telephone,  too,  has  been  a  blessing  to  womankind. 
From  the  start  we  have  done  most  of  the  work.  Bright,  iutelli- 


MODKKN    INVENTIONS    AND    WOMEN.  147 

gent  girls  are  employed  in  all  the  telephonic  offices  to  answer 
calls,  connect  the  wires,  and  attend  to  all  the  complicated  details 
of  the  telephonic  system.  .  Their  fitness  for  this  difficult  and 
responsible  labor  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  business  of  the 
companies  goes  on  quietly,  uninterruptedly,  and  without  friction 
or  complaint. ' ' 

"Yes,  my  dear,"  ejaculated  Mr.  Notion,  "I  admit  that  the 
'  Hello '  girls  have  a  practical  monopoly  of  that  kind  of  work. 
Possibly  their  lack  of  that  inquisitiveness  which  distinguishes  the 
male  sex  qualifies  them  especially  for  that  particular  kind  of 
employment." 

"No,"  was  his  wife's  smiling  reply,  "that  is  not  the  only 
reason,  although  you  speak  truly  when  you  say  that  women  are 
not  as  curious  as  men.  Our  indifference  to  the  daily  newspapers 
shows  that.  But  it  is  the  patience,  amiability,  good  judgment, 
and  tact  of  the  young  ladies  which  constitute  their  superiority 
to  men  in  the  performance  of  the  duties  connected  with  the 
telephone." 

"Well,  that  is  decidedly  cool!  "  exclaimed  Mr.  Notion. 

"  To  continue,  however,"  proceeded  Mrs.  Notion,  "the  sewing- 
machine  has  been  and  is  another  great  boon  to  womankind.  As 
a  result  of  its  use,  most  of  the  hard  tailoring  work  once  done  by 
men  is  now  done  by  women,  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  we  women 
manufacture  the  greater  part  of  men's  wearing  apparel,  in  addi- 
tion to  our  own.  And  then  there  is  the  typewriter.  Prior  to 
its  introduction  the  clerical  work  in  commercial  counting-houses 
and  professional  offices  was  performed  almost  altogether  by  men. 
Now  scores  of  thousands  of  young  women  in  all  our  large  cities 
find  light  and  congenial  employment  in  the  operation  of  type- 
writers. And  right  here  let  me  say  that  without  another  inven- 
tion the  writing  machine  would  not  have  been  so  beneficial  to 
women. ' ' 

"And  what  is  that,  pray?"  inquired  her  husband. 

' '  Why,  the  elevator.  Though  buildings  in  our  centers  of 
population  are  now  higher  than  ever  before,  five  and  six-story 
structures  were  quite  common  in  all  the  large  cities  long  before 
elevators  came  into  use.  Then  as  now  lawyers'  offices  were  in 
the  upper  stories,  and  the  frequent  climbing  of  numerous  flights 
of  stairs  constituted  an  almost  insuperable  barrier  to  the  employ- 
ment of  lady  clerks.  Hence,  if  the  typewriter  had  come  without 
the  elevator,  women  would  have  been  unable  to  gain  such  easy 


148  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

access  to  lawyers'  offices,  and  male  clerks  might  still  be  doing 
much  of  their  work." 

"  One  would  almost  suppose  from .  your  remarks,  Mrs.  Notion, 
that  some  understanding  existed  between  the  women  and  the 
inventors,  and  that  the  transfer  of  a  considerable  portion  of  the 
work  of  the  community  from  men  to  women  was  the  result  of 
a  deep-laid  conspiracy." 

"Not  at  all,  my  dear  Ned.  Behind  all  these  things  is  a  kind 
and  overruling  Providence,  who  is  correlating  events  which  have1 
no  obvious  human  connection,  and  so  combining  and  shaping 
them  as  to  uplift  the  female  portion  of  our  race  from  the  oppres- 
sion and  degradation  of  centuries." 

"Hasn't  it  struck  you  as  singular,  Matilda,"  asked  her 
husband,  "that  the  women  whose  emancipation  was  to  be  wrought 
so  largely  through  the  instrumentality  of  inventions,  should  have 
been  willing  to  leave  the  labor  of  invention  and  discovery  almost 
entirely  to  men  ? ' ' 

"No,  Mr.  Notion,  it  has  not.  In  the  first  place,  you  assume 
what  is  not  true.  Women  are  just  as  inventive  as  men,  and  if 
they  were  not,  I  should  attribute  it,  not  to  any  inherent  inferi- 
ority, but  to  lack  of  opportunity.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  though, 
many  of  the  greatest  inventions  of  the  age  have  originated  with 
women.  But  their  ignorance  of  the  patent  laws,  of  business 
methods,  and  of  the  real  importance  of  their  devices,  was  taken 
advantage  of  by  men,  who  thus  appropriated  to  themselves  the 
credit  and  profit  which  belonged  by  right  to  women.  For  this 
reason  I  claim  that  the  final  outcome  of  modern  inventions  in 
favor  of  our  sex,  is  a  marked  instance  of  righteous  retribution." 

"But  surely,  Matilda,  some  of  these  gifted  women  have  had 
sense  enough  to  patent  their  own  inventions." 

"Yes,  indeed  they  have,"  replied  Mrs.  Notion.  "  When  I  was 
at  the  World's  Fair  in  1893,  and  visited  that  architectural 
marvel,  the  Woman's  Building,  I  was  deeply  impressed  with  the 
inventions  of  women  which  I  saw  exhibited  there.  Among  them 
were  a  self-threading  sewing-machine;  an  appliance  by  which  the 
occupant  of  a  vehicle  can  easily  and  instantly  detach  the  horses 
from  it,  and  at  the  same  time  apply  the  brakes  to  the  wheels;  a 
refrigerator  with  ventilated  food  drawers;  an  adjustable  trough 
for  feeding  and  watering  cattle  in  transportation;  an  ingenious 
garment  fastener  which  closes  like  a  seam,  but  which  opens  by  a 
single  movement  of  the  hand,  and  obviates  the  use  of  hooks  or 


MODKRX    INVENTIONS   AND    WOMEtt.  149 

buttons;  an  appliance  for  matching  stripes  and  figures  in  cloth; 
a  heat  conserver,  which  will  keep  food  hot  for  hours  without 
artificial  heat;  a  perfect  bread-raiser;  a  dough -beater;  and  a  very 
useful  and  novel  waist  and  sleeve  pressing  board.  The  names  of 
some  of  the  lady  inventors  whose  devices  were  there  displayed 
were:  Annie  H.  Chilton,  Mary  M.  Harris,  Madame  J.  Leontine, 
Ida  A.  Teller,  Mrs.  Kellogg,  Caroline  W.  Romney,  Mary  E. 
Mapp,  Mrs.  A.  J.  Heinbel,  and  Mrs.  M.  J.  Day.  Though  I 
did  not  attend  the  Atlanta  Exposition,  I  kept  close  watch  for 
accounts  of  the  work  of  my  inventive  sisters,  and,  among  other 
things  which  they  exhibited  there,  were  a  rubber  bath-tub  for 
babies,  a  brass  crib,  a  brass  baby  carriage,  a  baby  jumper,  a 
baby  tender,  a  model  feeding  bib,  a  baking  pan,  a  new  sewing- 
machine,  a  straw  sewing-machine,  an  ironing  board,  a  douche 
bath  which  closes  like  a  folding  bed,  a  condensed-milk  cup  with 
spring  attachment  at  the  bottom,  a  coffee  pourer  which  delivers  a 
definite  amount  by  the  pressure  of  a  button,  a  bedclothes  fastener, 
a  rattan  bolster  and  sham  holder,  a  street  sweeper,  a  composition 
for  saving  fuel,  a  marble  shooter,  a  finger  strengthener  for  piano 
practice,  a  trunk  protector,  a  step  ladder,  a  duplex  bicycle  skirt, 
anew  waterproof  called  'vulcanized  air,'  etc." 

"I  should  judge,  my  dear, "  said  Mr.  Notion,  "that  most  of 
these  inventions  are  very  sensible,  and  just  such  as  true  wives  and 
mothers  should  be  interested  in." 

"True,"  replied  Mrs.  Notion,  "but  that  is  not  the  point  I 
wish  to  call  to  your  attention  at  this  time.  The  thought  I  desire 
to  emphasize  in  connection  with  these  inventions  of  women,  is  that 
most  of  them  are  for  the  comfort,  convenience,  and  welfare  of 
mothers  and  their  children.  This  shows  that  the  lady  inventors 
of  the  country  are  in  hearty  sympathy  with  the  home  and  its 
youthful  inmates,  and  would  indicate  that  the  women  of  America 
were  not  so  averse  to  the  function  of  maternity  as  you  have 
asserted." 

"To  my  mind  the  fact  upon  which  you  comment  would  bring 
no  such  inference,"  said  Mr.  Notion,  "but  would  simply  make 
it  appear  that  many  of  the  good  mothers  of  the  land  had  pat- 
ented little  labor-saving  domestic  appliances  which  had  been 
suggested  to  them  during  the  course  of  their  household  experi- 
ence. But,  aside  from  this  phase  of  the  subject,  you  must  con- 
fess that  the  inventions  which  you  have  enumerated  are  compar- 
atively insignificant  and  narrow  in  their  scope,  when  compared 
with  the  great  inventions  of  men." 


150  I>oMI-Xn<!     IH'r.l.-v 

"Don't  boast  too  much  about  them,  Edward,  for  you  will 
find  upon  investigation  that  women  have  had  a  hand  in  nearly 
all  of  them.  Watt  would  never  have  thought  of  the  strain 
engine  if  it  had  not  been  for  his  mother's  teakettle,  and  he 
would  not  have  perfected  his  invention  without  the  aid  and 
encouragement  of  Margaret  Miller,  his  cousin,  and  afterwards 
his  wife.  She  made  his  success  possible  by  her  work,  cheer, 
hope,  self-sacrifice,  and  pravers.  But,  before  he  achieved  fame, 
repeated  disappointments  and  privations  caused  her  death.  We 
do  not  hear  enough  of  the  heroism  and  nobility  of  the  wives  of 
great  inventors.  In  this  man-ruled  world  they  are  generally 
ignored.  By  listening  intently,  however,  faint  echoes  of  the 
life  histories  and  characters  of  some  of  them  have  come  to  me. 
It  was  the  love  which  Elias  Howe  bore  his  wife  which  led  him 
to  invent  the  sewing-machine,  in  order  that  he  might  lighten  her 
toil,  as  she  sewed  for  their  three  little  children.  When  he  was 
on  the  very  verge  of  success,  his  noble  helpmeet  sickened  with 
consumption  and  died.  But  she  was  faithful  to  the  last,  and  on 
her  death-bed  gave  him  words  of  encouragement  and  love.  At 
that  time  his  fortune  consisted  of  sixty-two  cents.  Thirteen 
years  afterward  his  income  was  two  million  dollars." 

"I  am  deeply  interested,  Matilda,  in  what  you  tell  me,  for 
it  comes  to  me  with  all  the  charm  of  novelty." 

"Remember,  too,  Edward,  that  Arkwright's  spinning-jenny 
was  the  result  of  an  effort  on  his  part  to  improve  upon  his 
mother's  method  of  spinning  yarn." 

"That  will  never  do,"  said  Mr.  Notion  reproachfully.  "You 
would  be  just  as  logical  if  you  were  to  claim  that  women  were 
entitled  to  credit  for  all  great  inventions,  because  they  were  the 
mothers  of  great  inventors." 

"If  I  were  disposed  to  argue  along  that  line,"  retorted  Mrs. 
Notion,  "I  might  say  that  men  generally  resemble  their  mothers, 
and  that  great  inventors  are  no  exception  to  this  rule.  But  I  am 
not  forced  to  take  such  a  position,  for  women  have  accomplished 
great  things  in  this  direction  themselves.  The  spinning  of  silk 
was  first  done  by  a  Chinese  woman.  Lace-making  on  pillows 
was  the  invention  of  Barbara  Uttmaii,  in  ( lermauy,  .'500  years 
ago,  at  a  time  when  the  country  was  on  the  verge  of  financial 
ruin.  The  art  spread  with  great  rapidity,  and  such  large  sums 
of  money  were  thus  brought  into  the  country  that  the  threatened 
wreck  and  ruin  were  averted.  The  horseshoe  machine,  which 


MODERN    INVENTIONS   AND   WOMEN.  151 

turns  out  a  shoe  every  three  minutes,  is  the  invention  of  a  woman, 
and  the  paper  pail,  rotary  loom  furnace  for  smelting  ore,  screw 
crank  for  steamers,  fire  escapes,  self-fastening  buttons,  danger 
signals,  etc.,  had. their  origin  in  the  ingenuity  of  members  of  my 
sex.  Women  have  also  invented  many  improvements  in  sewing- 
machines,  a  machine  for  the  manufacture  of  boxes,  an  improved 
clothes  drier,  a  rug  fastener,  a  sash  fastener,  agricultural  imple- 
ments, and  a  complete  dishwasher  and  rinser,  that  makes  the  work 
of  washing  dishes  mere  play.  Mrs.  Mather  invented  and  her 
daughter  perfected  the  deep-sea  telescope,  by  which  wrecks  can 
be  inspected,  and  the  bottoms  of  large  vessels  examined  without 
their  being  docked.  Mrs.  Maggie  Knight  invented  the  satchel 
bottom  bag,  and  realized  a  profit  of  $50, 000  out  of  it.  Harriet 
Hosmer  has  succeeded  in  producing  marble  from  limestone.  The 
Eureka  street  sweeper  is  the  invention  of  a  woman.  In  fact, 
we  are  proving  our  ability  to  do  all  kinds  of  work,  and  conduct 
all  kinds  of  business.  Mary  Kies  was  the  first  woman  in  the 
United  States  to  obtain  a  patent.  In  1809  she  patented  her 
method  of  weaving  straw  with  silk  or  thread.  In  1893  the 
women  of  this  country  took  out  300  patents  on  their  own 
inventions,  and.  in  1894  they  were  granted  400  patents,  160  of 
which  were  for  wearing  apparel,  and  100  for  cooking  utensils. 
There  are  fifty  women  architects  in  the  United  States,  and  the 
number  is  increasing.  Miss  Kittie  Wilkins,  the  'horse  queen' 
of  Idaho,  has  one  of  the  largest  horse-training  ranches  in  the 
world,  and  Mrs.  Richard  King  owns  a  ranch  in  southern  Texas 
of  1,250, 000  acres.  It  is  thirteen  miles  from  her  frontdoor  to  her 
front  gate,  and  she  can  drive  over  her  land  sixty-eight  miles  in  a 
straight  line.  She  lives,  as  every  woman  ought  to,  in  a  magnifi- 
cent mansion." 

"You  amaze  me,"  exclaimed  Mr.  Notion,  "by  these  state- 
ments. I  have  read  much  concerning  women,  and  have  flattered 
myself  that  I  was  well  posted  in  reference  to  their  history  and 
present  status,  but  you  have  come  into  possession  of  much 
information  which  is  altogether  new  to  me." 

Mrs.  Notion  smiled,  and  said:  "I  have  not  confined  myself 
to  books,  but  have  hunted  for  facts  in  every  nook  and  cranny  of 
literature,  current  as  well  as  classic.  But,  speaking  of  women 
architects,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  imposing  edifices  I  ever 
beheld  was  the  Woman's  Building  at  the  Columbian  Exposition, 
and  it  was  designed  by  a  lady." 


152  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

"Did  the  ladies  build  it?"  inquired  Mr.  Notion,  with  an  air 
of  the  most  unsophisticated  innocence. 

"No,  of  course  they  didn't.  They  were  too  busy  trying  to 
prevent  their  male  relatives  from  going  into  despair  over  the 
tremendous  business,  failures  and  reverses  of  that  time.  In  this 
connection  I  will  say  that  I  am  very  thankful  that-  the  cruel  age 
of  steam  has  had  its  day,  and  that  the  era  of  electricity  is  here. 
The  one  had  to  precede  and  prepare  the  way  for  the  other.  Just 
think  of  the  significance  of  the  change  !  The  touch  of  a  little 
electric  button  set  in  motion  the  mighty  machinery  of  the  World's 
Fair;  the  gentle  pressure  of  a  child's  hand  caused  the  huge 
explosion  at  Hell  Gate.  Don't  you  see  what  this  means?  It 
means  that  intelligence,  tact,  sagacity,  patience,  and  integrity  are 
hereafter  to  dominate  the  world.  Brute  force  has  had  its  day. 
The  work  of  the  rough  hod-carrier  can  now  be  done  by  women, 
for  the  elevator  now  lifts  the  building  materials  to  the  required 
height.  If  wars  are  to  continue,  men  will  no  longer  monopolize 
the  fighting.  Armies  can  now  wage  the  most  dreadful  conflicts 
out  of  sight  of  each  other.  Cavalry  charges  are  a  thing  of  the 
past.  Bicycle  riders  will  take  their  place,  and  women  will  soon 
be  riding  the  metal  steeds  in  larger  numbers  than  the  men.  The 
greatest  cannon  are  now  lifted,  loaded,  and  discharged  by  machin- 
ery, which  women  can  manipulate  as  well  as  men;  and  smokeless 
powder  and  long-distance  firearms  have  removed  combatants  so 
far  apart  that  marksmen  get  their  range  only  by  means  of  mag- 
nifying glasses  and  mathematical  calculations.  These  things  can 
be  done  by  women  as  well  as  men." 

Mr.  Notion  looked  at  his  wife  with  an  expression  of  real 
alarm.  "Are  you  so  warlike  as  all  that?"  he  asked.  "I 
thought  you  were  opposed  to  fighting  of  every  kind,  and  favored 
arbitration  as  a  substitute  for  warfare. ' ' 

"So  I  do;  but  you  men  have  so  long  argued  that  it  would  be 
useless  to  give  women  the  ballot,  for  the  reason  that,  in  case  they 
outvoted  the  majority  of  men,  they  could  not  enforce  the  verdict 
which  they  might  render  at  the  polls,  that  we  have  decided  to 
take  military  matters  also  into  our  own  hands.  After  we  have 
sufficiently  demonstrated  our  ability  to  wield  the  weapons  of 
modern  warfare,  and  protect  our  sex,  if  necessary,  against  the 
aggressions  of  men,  we  will  gracefully  disarm  and  bring  about  a 
universal  peace." 

"What  a  beautiful  programme,  Matilda,  and  how  charmingly 


MODERN  INVENTIONS  AND  woMEff.  153 

simple  ill  its  design  !  I  wonder  I  dicln'  t  think  of  it  myself. 
Possibly,  however,  there  might  be  some  little  difficulty  in  its 
execution.  Has  it  ever  occurred  to  you  that  the  great  majority 
of  women  will  always  be  so  busy  about  their  household  affairs 
that  they  will  have  neither  time  nor  inclination  to  take  the  reins 
of  power,  even  if  they  possessed  the  ability  to  do  so?" 

This  pointed  question  was  not  answered,  for  Mrs.  Notion 
looked  at  her  watch,  and,  exclaiming  that  she  would  be  late  at 
the  woman's  suffrage  meeting  if  she  did  not  hurry,  hastily  left 
the  room. 


Mr.  and  Mrs.  Notion  Discuss  Some  of  the  Indus- 
trial Phases  of  the  Woman  Question. 

"  Woman  ought  not  to  give  herself  up  to  those  pursuits  which 
interfere  with  her  natural  duties;  her  true  merit  consists  in  making 
her  husband  happy,  and  in  bringing  up  her  children  properly,  and 
in  forming  men." — De  Maistre. 

' '  I  was  much  interested  the  other  evening,  Matilda,  in  your 
novel  views  on  the  bearing  of  modern  inventions  upon  the  status 
of  your  sex.  I  was  somewhat  amused,  however,  at  the  rather 
guileless  manner  in  which  you  rejoiced  at  the  rapid  progress  which 
women  were  making  in  driving  men  out  of  the  industrial  field. 
You  did  not  seem  to  give  a  thought  to  the  future  of  the  men  who 
were  thus  displaced,  or  how  the  women  would  be  affected  who 
depended  upon  them  for  support. ' ' 

' '  There  you  are  very  much  mistaken, ' '  replied  Mrs.  Notion. 
"I  have  reflected  upon  these  matters  as  deeply  as  I  am  capable 
of  doing,  and  admit  that  the  problem  is  a  grave  one,  not  to  be 
settled  in  a  day,  and  not  to  be  solved  by  those  who  view  it  super- 
ficially, or  who  take  it  for  granted  that  the  former  relations  of 
the  sexes  are  better  than  those  of  the  present  time.  We  are  now 
living  in  a  period  of  transition,  and  so  rapid  and  radical  are  tbe 
changes  in  every  department  of  life,  that  the  fabric  of  society  is 
being  strained  almost  to  the  point  of  breaking.  In  fact,  I  am 
not  sure  that  our  present  systems,  or  the  civilization  which  is  their 
product,  will  survive. " 

"It  does  look,"  remarked  Mr.  Notion  thoughtfully,  "as 
though  the  old  social  and  political  machines  were  worn  out.  We 
have  been  patching  them  up  until  we  have  almost  reached  the 
point  that  the  colored  man  had  who  went  to  the  gunsmith  and 
said  lie  wanted  his  gun  repaired.  When  asked  to  state  the  par- 
ticulars in  which  it  needed  repairing,  he  said  lie  wanted  a  new 
lock,  stock,  and  barrel.  There  are  those  all  around  us  now  who 
demand  just  as  complete  a  change  in  the  constitution  of  society. 
The  prohibitionist  wants  to  annihilate  the  liquor  traffic.  The 

(154) 


INDUSTRIAL    I'HASKS    <>!•'    TIIK    (JUESTION.  155 

so-called  religious  reformer  wants  to  provide  a  substitute  for  all 
existing  sects  and  denominations.  The  free  trader  insists  that  the 
custom-houses  should  be  .abolished.  The  single  taxer  says  that 
taxation  is  robbery,  and  that  ground  rent,  the  product  of  society 
at  large  is  sufficient  to  defray  the  expense -of  every  legitimate 
governmental  function.  The  greeubacker  says  that  metal  money 
is  a  fraud,  that  true  economic  money  is  merely  a  medium  of 
exchange,  a  representative  of  value,  and  that  the  only  scientific 
currency  is  that  which  is  issued  by  the  government  as  an  acknowl- 
edgment of  indebtedness,  which  it  will  accept  for  all  purposes, 
or  pay  with  other  similar  acknowledgments.  The  silver  man 
demands  the  free  coinage  of  both  metals  at  16  to  1.  The  anti- 
monopolist  tells  us  that  the  road-beds  of  all  the  railroads  in  the 
country  should  be  acquired  by  the  government,  and  maintained 
by  it  as  highways  of  commerce,  freely  accessible  to  all  who  own 
cars  and  locomotives,  and  who  comply  with  the  laws  of  the  road. 
The  female  suffragist  would  have  us  believe  that  women  are 
entitled  to  the  ballot  equally  with  men,  and  that  all  that  is 
necessary  to  bring  about  a  Utopian  condition  of  affairs  is  to 
clothe  them  with  the  elective  franchise.  The  Christian  Scientist 
proclaims  the  unreality  of  matter,  and  the  ability  of  en- 
lightened man  to  free  himself  from  the  thraldom  of  sin,  disease, 
and  pain  by  the  mere  exercise  of  his  will.  Legal  reformers 
strenuously  assert  that  what  is  most  needed  is  to  withdraw  the 
sanction  of  the  law  from  all  private  contracts,  and  to  deprive  the 
parties  to  such  agreements  of  the  privilege  of  compelling  their 
performance  by  litigation.  The  ultra  advocates  of  peace  contend 
that  war  is  an  unnecessary  survival  of  barbarism,  and  that  the 
peaceable  settlement  of  all  international  disputes  by  a  court  of 
arbitration  is  entirely  practicable.  The  labor  agitator  claims  that 
all  the  troubles  between  labor  and  capital  should  be  settled  by 
official  arbitrators.  The  socialist  wants  the  community  to  own 
everything  and  do  everything,  thus  reducing  the  individual 
to  the  minimum  and  expanding  society  to  the  maximum.  The 
anarchist,  on  the  other  hand,  eagerly  desires  the  utter  abolition  of 
law,  and  would  have  only  such  communities  as  might  be  formed  by 
the  voluntary  association  of  individuals.  While  all  these  matters 
are  being  excitedly  discussed,  the  inventors  of  the  day  are 
quietly  undermining  the  foundations  of  society  by  inventions  and 
discoveries  so  great  ill  number,  and  so  important  and  far-reaching 
in  their  effects,  that  it  is  impossible  for  society  to  adapt  itself  to 


156  DOMKSTIC  nt'Ki.s. 

them.  Labor-saving  devices  which  would  be  of  incalculable 
benefit  to  the  community,  it'  it  possessed  etricient  and  equitable 
distributive  functions,  now  only  serve  to  render  valueless  vast 
plants  and  investments,  and  to  throw  out  of  employment  armies 
of  workingmen  and  working- women. ' ' 

''That  being  the  case,  Edward,  the  results  would  be  most 
deplorable  if  all  the  reformers  whom  you  mention  were  to  succeed 
in  the  enforcement  of  their  schemes.  The  ranks  of  the  unem- 
ployed would  be  suddenly  swollen  by  the  liquor  men,  the  preach- 
ers, the  custom-house  officials,  internal  revenue  officers,  and 
tax-collectors,  the  mint  employees  and  bank  officials,  the  railroad 
presidents,  the  physicians,  the  preachers,  the  lawyers,  and  judges, 
the  policemen  and  jailers,  and  the  army  and  navy." 

"Socialism  would  make  matters  right  again  by  giving  them 
all  government  jobs, "  dryly  suggested  Mr.  Notion. 

"Seriously,  Edward,  do  you  think  that  the  great  social  tenden- 
cies of  the  present  are  inimical  to  the  welfare  of  the  race''  " 

"I  certainly  do,  and  I  believe  that  the  most  ominous  of  them 
all  is  the  sinister  prominence  which  women  are  gaining.  As  i 
said  before,  they  are  to  the  front  everywhere.  Just  look  at  the 
fiestas,  flower  carnivals,  fetes,  etc.,  which  have  been  so  numerous 
in  different  parts  of  California  during  the  last  few  years.  Kadi 
of  these  has  to  be  ruled  by  a  queen,  who  is  chosen  after  keen 
competition  among  the  most  beautiful  and  influential  women  of 
the  neighborhood.  Arrayed  in  rich  robes  of  state,  crowned 
amidst  the  plaudits  of  the  thoughtless  multitude,  escorted  by 
maids  of  honor  and  pages,  she  is  formally  invested  by  the  city 
officials  with  all  the  powers  of  the  municipality,  and  begins  her 
reign  by  proclaiming  a  season  of  gaiety  and  revelry,  unchecked 
and  unhindered  by  the  usual  restraints  of  the  law. 

"  But  that  is  only  play,  Edward." 

"  Yes,  Matilda,  it  is  only  play,  but  the  fact  that  the  people  in 
these  times  of  poverty,  business  depression,  perplexing  social  and 
political  questions,  and  abounding  vice  and  crime,  should  want 
to  play,  constitutes  a  very  serious  sign  of  the  times.  It  reminds 
me  painfully  of  the  closing  days  of  Roman  greatness.  But  let  us 
return  to  our  immediate  subject,  which  is  the  supplanting  of  so 
many  nude  workers  by  women.  Permit  me  to  again  remind  you 
that  the  men  wrho  are  thus  displaced,  are  often  unable  to  obtain 
other  employment,  and  that  great  suffering  results  to  their  families 
as  well  as  to  themselves. ' ' 


INDUSTRIAL    PHASES    OF    THE   QUESTION.  157 

"  I  know  it,  Edward,  but  the  woman  who  is  looking  for  work 
can  not  stop  because  of  any  such  considerations.  The  fact  is  that 
a  very  large  percentage  of  the  women  of  civilized  lauds  are 
unmarried,  and  must  depend  upon  their  own  exertions  for 
support.  In  1870,  43  per  cent  of  all  the  women  of  Scotland 
over  twenty  years  of  age  were  unmarried.  At  the  same  time  40 
per  cent  of  English  women  were  single.  Can  you  wonder  that 
they  exerted  themselves  to  get  work  ? ' ' 

"  But  the  trouble  is,"  said  Mr.  Notion,  "that  they  accept  less 
wages  than  men,  and  thus  by  their  cheap  labor  reduce  the  rewards 
of  industry.  The  men  who  are  thrown  out  of  employment  by 
this  female  competition  are  in  many  instances  supported  by  their 
own  wives  and  children.  In  both  Europe  and  America  the 
employment  of  women  and  children  is  continually  on  the  increase, 
especially  in  the  textile  industries,  whose  thousands  of  steam 
looms  and  spindle  frames  are  worked  by  the  cheapest  labor  in  the 
market.  In  consequence  of  this  condition  of  affairs,  the  relations 
of  sex  and  age  have  been  pretty  well  reversed.  The  wife  and 
children  are  in  the  factory;  the  man,  who  has  no  work  to  do, 
stays  at  home  and  attends  to  the  house.  A  great  many  instances 
of  this  kind  have  come  within  my  personal  observation.  Men 
who  once  earned  good  wages  and  salaries,  unable  to  find  work, 
have  become  dependent  upon  the  exertions  of  their  wives  and 
daughters,  and,  ashamed  to  live  at  the  expense  of  the  female 
member's  of  their  household,  without  doing  something,  they  have 
gradually  accustomed  themselves  to  sweeping,  cooking,  and  the 
washing  of  dishes." 

"  I  really  had  not  given  that  phase  of  the  subject  much  study," 
said  Mrs.  Notion.  "  I  was  delighted  to  think  that  my  unmarried 
sisters  were  becoming  independent,  but  I  did  not  realize  that  their 
competition  with  men  was  driving  married  women  into  the  ranks 
of  industry." 

"Let  me  quote  a  little  from  the  census,"  exclaimed  Mr. 
Notion.  "Carrol  D.  Wright,  in  the  tenth  census  of  the  United 
States,  says:  'The  factory  system  necessitates  the  employment  of 
women  and  children  to  an  injurious  extent,  and,  consequently, 
its  tendency  is  to  destroy  family  life  and  ties  and  domestic  habits, 
and  ultimately  the  home.'  The  census  of  1870  gives  the  total 
number  of  women  workers  at  1,830,288,  an  increase  of  19  per 
cent  since  I860.  In  1880  they  were  2,647,157,  or  14.68  per 
cent  of  females  over  ten  years  of  age.  In  Massachusetts  the 


15.S  hoMKsTir  i>ri-:i.s. 


average  weekly  earnings  of  the  working-girls  for  the  average 
time  employed,  which  was  42.  95  weeks,  were  8t>.01,  and  the 
average  weekly  earnings  of  all  the  working-girls  of  Boston  for 
a  whole  year  were  $4.91.  The  average  yearly  income  from  all 
sources  was  8209.70,  and  the  average  yearly  expenses  for  pos- 
itive needs  was  $261.30,  leaving  but  $7.77  on  an  average  for 
books,  amusements,  etc.  In  New  York  City  the  wages  of  work- 
ing-women for  the  entire  year  average  83.50  to  84.00  per  week, 
and  under  the  sweating  system  wages  fall  to  82.50  and  §3.00  a 
week,  and  m  many  instances  lower  still." 

"In  another  part  of  Mr.  Wright's  reports,"  said  Mrs. 
Notion,  "he  shows  the  average  wages  per  week  of  women- 
workers  in  twenty-two  American  cities  to  be  85.24.  I>ut  1 
don't  like  these  figures.  They  don't  convey  any  very  definite 
idea  to  the  ordinary  mind.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  they  are  low, 
very  low,  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  many  of  these  women 
and  girls  do  not  have  to  entirely  support  themselves.  They 
merely  supplement  by  their  earnings  the  incomes  of  their  hus- 
bands, fathers,  and  brothers,  and  obtain  money  with  which  to 
buy  nice  clothing,  and  the  innumerable  little  articles  of  per- 
fumery, confectionery,  and  bijouterie  which  women  need  to  make 
them  happy." 

"All  the  worse,  Matilda,  for  the  women  who  are  solely 
dependent  upon  their  own  exertions  for  support.  They  have  to 
compete  with  the  girls  who  live  at  home,  and  are  not  able  to 
supply  themselves  with  the  bare  necessities  of  life,  let  alone  the 
innumerable  little  luxuries  which  you  mention  as  indispensable 
to  a  woman's  happiness.  As  a  result  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
them  have  to  work  for  wages  below  the  standard  of  subsistence, 
and  to  suffer  untold  misery  and  want.  Were  it  not  for  the 
competition  of  the  women  who  want  a  little  pin  money,  these 
unfortunate  creatures  would  doubtless  receive  larger  compensa- 
tion. It  makes  me  shudder  as  I  think  of  the  five  hundred 
thousand  working-women  of  London  alone,  vast  numbers  of 
whom  are  driven  to  prostitution  as  a  means  of  keeping  body 
and  soul  together.  A  recent  report  shows  that  the  English  nail 
and  chain  workers  receive  only  eight  pence  a  day,  and  that  a 
majority  of  English  women  workers  receive  compensation  below 
the  point  of  subsistence.  In  France,  where  everything  is  dear, 
and  sugar  sells  at  twelve  cents  a  pound,  there  are  4,415,000 
women  workers.  In  Lille,  France,  the  weavers  and  spinners 


INDUSTRIAL    PHASES    OF    THE    QUESTION.  159 

formerly  lived  in  caves,   3,600  of  which  were  destroyed  by  the 
government  some  years  ago." 

"Yes,"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Notion,  "I  have  read  a  graphic 
description  of  the  female  spinners  in  France,  by  Jules  Simon. 
He  says:  'Water  covers  the  brick  floor.  The  odor  of  the  linen 
and  a  temperature  often  exceeding  25  Reaumeer,  fill  the  work- 
room with  an  intolerable  stench.  The  majority  of  the  work- 
women, obliged  to  put  off  most  of  their  garments,  are  huddled 
together  in  this  pestilential  atmosphere,  imprisoned  in  the 
machines,  pressed  one  against  the  other,  their  bodies  streaming 
with  sweat,  their  feet  bare  to  the  ankle;  and  when  a  day  nom- 
inally of  twelve  hours,  but  really  of  thirteen  and  a  half,  is  over, 
they  quit  the  Avork-room  for  home,  the  rags  they  wear  barely 
protecting  them  from  cold  and  damp.'  ' 

' '  The  same  may  be  said,  Matilda,  of  the  women  workers  of 
Belgium,  Switzerland,  and  Italy.  In  Germany  two-thirds  of  the 
women  are  at  work  in  field  or  shop  or  home,  the  proportion  of 
Avomen  in  agriculture  being  larger  than  in  any  other  country  of 
Europe.  The  million  female  agriculturists  of  Germany  receive 
from  20  to  25  cents  a  clay  for  12  and  13  hours'  Avork.  Nearly 
half  of  the  15,000,000  Italian  women  Avork  for  Avages.  In 
Russia  the  female  Avorkers  get  only  one-fifth  the  Avages  of  the 
men,  and  Avork  from  12  to  16  hours  a  day." 

"Helen  Campbell  is  my  favorite  author  on  this  subject,"  said 
Mrs.  Notion.  "In  one  of  her  books — I  think  it  is  'Women 
Wage- workers,'  she  says,  speaking  of  unskilled  women  Avorkers: 
'  All  alike  are  half-starved,  half-clothed,  ovenvorked  to  a  fright- 
ful degree;  the  report  specifies  numbers  AA'hose  day's  work  runs 
from  14  to  16  hours,  and  Avith  neither  time  to  learn  some  better 
method  of  earning  a  living,  nor  hope  enough  to  spur  them  on  in 
any  IICAV  path. ' ' 

"The  linen  thread  spinners  of  Paterson,  NeAV  Jersey," 
remarked  Mr.  Notion,  "are  as  badly  off  as  those  of  France, 
if  the  official  report  is  to  be  believed.  It  says:  '  In  one  brand) 
of  this  industry  women  are  compelled  to  stand  on  a  stone  floor 
in  Avater  the  year  round,  most  of  the  time  barefooted,  Avith  a 
spray  of  Avater  from  a  revolving  cylinder  flying  constantly  against 
the  breast;  and  the  coldest  night  in  Avinter,  as  AA'ell  as  the  warmest 
in  summer,  these  poor  creatures  must  go  to  their  homes  with 
Avater  dripping  from  their  underclothing  along  their  path,  because 
there  could  not  be  space  or  a  feAV  moments  alloAved  them  wherein 
to  change  their  clothing.'  ' 


160  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

"How  fortunate  it  is,  Edward,  that  the  wretched  condition  of 
the  unfortunate  women  workers  should  be  ameliorated  by  the 
piety  of  some  of  their  employers!  The  Labor  Commissioner  of 
Iowa  has  discovered  that  shirts  are  being  made  in  one  of  the 
large  cities  of  that  state  for  36  cents  per  dozen,  and  that  the 
rules  of  one  establishment  paying  such  wages  to  a  large  number 
of  women,  require  that  the  day's  labor  should  commence  and 
terminate  with  prayer  and  thanksgiving." 

"It  is  just  such  hideous  hypocrisy  as  that,  Matilda,  that  is 
alienating  the.  masses  from  the  church.  The  conditions  are  truly 
appalling,  and  human  wisdom  is  incompetent  to  discover  or  apply 
the  remedy  which  shall  cure  our  social  and  industrial  maladies. 
When  women  are  glad  of  the  chance  to  make  overalls  for  forty 
cents  per  dozen  pairs,  and  pants  for  from  fifty  cents  to  a  dollar 
and  a  quarter  per  dozen  pairs,  and  charge  from  twenty-five  cents 
upwards  for  summer  dresses,  the  outlook  is  gloomy.  Our  Amer- 
ican working-girls  begin  work  at  the  average  age  of  fifteen  years 
and  four  months,  and  have  to  fight  enemies  insidious  and  almost 
innumerable.  Among  these  deadly  foes  to  female  industry  I 
may  mention  the  dust  of  heckling  flax,  which  kills  the  strongest 
in  fourteen  years;  that  of  emery  powder,  which  sometimes  destroys 
life  in  a  month;  that  of  pottery,  etc.,  so  penetrating  that  the 
medical  reports  give  cases  of  stone  for  new-born  babes;  that  of 
rags,  foul,  and  breeding  fever  in  the  picker;  that  of  wools  from 
diseased  animals,  striking  down  the  sorter;  that  of  wood,  coal, 
and  flour,  each  of  which  is  so  penetrating  that  it  can  not  be 
removed  or  dislodged;  the  poisonous  paints  of  artificial  flowers 
and  wall  papers,  which  blotch  the  skin  of  children,  and  produce 
frequently  blindness,  paralysis,  and  hideous  sores;  the  deadly 
vapors  of  muriatic  acid  from  pickling  tins;  of  chlorine  from 
bleaching- rooms;  of  gas  and  phosphorus,  which,  despite  the 
strongest  preventives,  destroy  the  teeth  and  jaws  of  many  a 
worker.  In  these  shops  and  factories,  amidst  the  stamping,  saw- 
ing, rolling,  and  cutting  of  machinery,  the  saying  is  heard,  'It 
takes  three  fingers  to  make  a  stamper.'  ' 

"Just  think,  Edward,  of  little  children  of  four  being  taught 
lace-making,  and  made  to  sew  on  buttons  and  pick  threads  far 
into  the  night! " 

"Thase  conditions  are,  fortunately,  no  longer  possible  under  the 
factory  laws  of  England  and  most  of  the  states  of  America," 
Said  Mr,  Notion.  "But  the  enemies  I  mentioned  are  only  a 


INDUSTRIAL    PHASES   OF   THE   QUESTION.  161 

few  of  the  terrible  total  of  working- women's  foes.  The  lack  of 
ventilation  adds  many  to  the  multitude  of  victims  who  acquire 
lung  and  bronchial  diseases  from  the  inhalation  of  the  dusts  of 
feathers,  furs,  cotton,  wool,  a^id  other  fabrics  of  manufacture. 
In  soap  factories  the  hands  of  the  girls  are  eaten  by  the  caustic 
soda,  and  at  the  end  of  the  day  their  fingers  are  often  raw  and 
bleeding.  In  the  manufacture  of  buttons,  pins,  etc. ,  the  fingers 
are  often  jammed  or  cut,  and  for  the  first  three  times  the  wounds 
are  dressed  without  charge,  but  after  that  at  the  worker's  expense. 
The  intense  watchfulness  required  in  many  trades  brings  on  weak- 
ness of  the  eyes,  necessitating  the  expensive  services  of  the 
oculist.  The  girls  who  work  in  bakeries  stand  from  ten  to  six- 
teen hours  a  day,  and  soon  break  down." 

"AVhat  a  dreadful  catalogue  of  miseries!"  exclaimed  Mrs. 
Notion. 

' '  Yes,  dear,  the  list  is  a  dreary  one,  and  yet  I  have  not  half 
finished  it.  Cash  girls,  saleswomen,  and  factory  workers  have  to 
stand  all  day,  and  many  diseases  and  troubles  result.  The  girls 
in  type  foundries  are  ghastly  pale  from  the  effects  of  the  fine 
metallic  dust,  while  those  in  book  binderies,  brush  factories,  and 
paper-box  factories  soon  break  down  from  a  variety  of  causes. 
In  laundries  and  confectionery  establishments  the  excessive  heat 
makes  the  women  subject  to  pulmonary  complaints,  in  addition 
to  the  ailments  produced  by  continuous  standing.  The  fine  dust 
of  straw  goods  makes  the  girls  cough  almost  constantly,  and  the 
acids  employed  often  cause  acid  sores  upon  the  ends  of  the 
fingers.  In  match  factories  necrosis  often  eats  the  jaw  away. 
Ulcers,  sores,  and  a  variety  of  pains  are  the  lot  of  the  girls  who 
work  in  chemicals.  Much  of  this  misery  might  be  obviated  by 
the  employers,  but  they  refuse  to  do  anything  as  a  rule,  unless 
compelled  by  law.  Lack  of  seats  for  saleswomen,  insufficient 
time  for  meals,  scanty  and  unsanitary  toilet  conveniences,  and  a 
system  of  petty  fines,  which  sometimes  eat  up  one-third  and  one- 
half  the  wages,  are  among  the  evils  of  shop  life  which  might  be 
eradicated." 

' '  Another  serious  evil  in  all  large  establishments, ' '  said  Mrs. 
Notion,  ''is  the  fact  that  girls  are  generally  forced  to  obtain 
from  men  permission  to  go  to  the  closets,  and  are  often  compelled 
to  run  the  gauntlet  of  men  and  boys  in  order  to  get  there.  The 
unanimous  testimony  of  the  physicians  who  treat  these  girls  is 
that  many  of  them,  as  the  result  of  their  aversion  to  subjecting 
11 


162  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

themselves  to  this  trying  ordeal,  have  contracted  serious  diseases. 
I  am  sorry,  too,  that  women  are  gradually  becoming  more 
addicted  to  the  use  of  strong  driuk.  Dr.  Annie  S.  Daniel,  for 
many  years  physician  in  charge  of  out-practice  for  the  New  York 
Infirmary  for  Women  and  Children,  reports  that  'drinking  among 
women  is  increasing. ' ' 

"A  very  distressing  phase  of  the  female  labor  problem  of 
which  we  have  not  yet  spoken,"  remarked  Mr.  Notion,  "is  that 
of  the  so-called  domestic  industry,  which  might  seem  at  a  super- 
ficial glance  to  be  much  more  advantageous  for  those  engaged  in 
it  than  the  crowded  factory.  Let  me  quote  in  this  connection 
from  your  favorite  industrial  author,  Helen  Campbell:  'In  the 
region  between  Houston  Street  and  Canal  Street,  New  York, 
known  now  to  be  the  most  thickly  populated  portion  of  the 
inhabited  globe,  every  house  is  a  factory;  that  is,  some  form  of 
manufacture  is  carried  on  in  every  room.  The  average  family  of 
five  adds  to  itself  from  two  to  ten  more,  often  a  sewing-machine 
to  each  person ;  and  from  six  or  seven  in  the  morning  until  far 
into  the  night  the  work  goes  on — usually  the  manufacture  of 
clothing.  Here  contagious  diseases  pass  from  one  to  another. 
Here  babes  are  born  and  die,  the  work  never  pausing,  save  for 
death,  and  hardly  for  that.  In  one  of  these  homes  Dr.  Daniel 
found  a  family  of  five  making  cigars,  the  mother  included.  Two 
of  the  children  were  ill  of  diphtheria.  Both  parents  attended  to 
these  children;  they  would  syringe  the  nose  of  each  child,  and 
without  washing  their  hands,  return  to  their  cigars.  AYc  have 
repeatedly  observed  the  same  thing  when  the  work  was  manu- 
facturing clothing  and  undergarments,  to  be  bought  as  well  by 
the  rich  as  the  poor.  Hand-sewed  shoes,  made  for  a  fashionable 
Broadway  shoe  store,  were  sewed  at  home  by  a  man  in  whose 
fan  lily  were  three  children  with  scarlet  fever.  And  such  instances 
are  common.  Only  death  or  lack  of  work  closes  the  tenement- 
house  manufactories.  AVhen  we  consider  that  stopping  the  work 
means  no  food  and  no  roof  over  their  heads,  the  fact  that  the 
disease  may  be  carried  by  their  work,  can  not  be  expected  to  im- 
press these  people. '  ' 

"AYhy,  Kdward,  such  a  condition  of  things  constitutes  a 
standing  menace  to  the  health  and  even  the  life  of  every  family 
in  our  land!  " 

"It  certainly  does,  Matilda,  and  womanhood,  childhood,  and 
the  family  as  a  whole,  are  greviously  wronged  by  this  state  of 


INDUSTRIAL,    PHASES    OF    THE    QUESTION.  163 

affairs.  As  Helen  Campbell  says,  'it  is  the  future  of  the  race 
that  is  in  question.'  The  married  woman  who  works  thus  is 
exposed  to  many  accidents  during  pregnancy,  which  are  alike 
injurious  to  her  offspring  and  herself,  frequently  producing  abor- 
tions, and  premature  and  still  births.  The  mother  is  compelled 
to  return  to  work  as  soon  after  her  confinement  as  possible,  with 
the  alternative  of  having  her  place  filled  by  another  competitor. 
Hence  the  children  are  neglected,  eat  unwholesome  food,  are 
quieted  with  opiates,  and  die  like  sheep,  or  live  to  suffer  from 
stunted  development  or  chronic  diseases  and  deformities.  Helen 
Campbell  says  that  comparatively  few  prostitutes  are  recruited 
from  the  ranks  of  female  industry,  but  other  writers  differ  radi- 
cally from  her  in  this  respect.  Bebel  says:  '  It  was  ascertained 
in  Munchen  in  1877,  that  among  the  registered  prostitutes  under 
the  surveillance  of  the  police,  no  fewer  than  203  were  the  wives 
of  day  laborers  and  artisans.'  Countless  other  married  women, 
he  says,  are  driven  to  this  course  without  subjecting  themselves  to 
police  control.  But  the  subject  of  prostitution  is  a  disagreeable 
one,  and,  though  it  is  rather  closely  related  to  our  theme,  I  don't 
suppose  you  care  to  hear  anything  further  about  it. ' ' 

"There  you  are  mistaken,  Edward.  A  sincere  student  of 
social  conditions  must  expect  to  come  in  contact  with  much  that 
is  painful  and  even  loathsome,  and  I  am  not  one  of  those  women 
who  carry  their  modesty  to  the  extreme  of  prudery.  I  believe 
it  is  only  by  frankly  meeting  these  evils,  and  admitting  the 
horrible  facts,  that  we  can  hope  to  improve  existing  conditions." 

"Well,  Matilda,  I  will  only  briefly  refer  to  this  phase  of  our 
subject.  It  is  impossible  to  do  more  than  approximate  the 
number  of  fallen  women  in  any  city.  While  the  police  can  state 
with  considerable  accuracy  the  number  of  professional  prostitutes, 
it  can  not  do  so  with  regard  to  the  far  greater  number  of  those 
who  resort  to  prostitution  as  a  partial  means  of  subsistence. 
Von  Dettingen  estimated  the  number  of  lewd  women  in  London 
in  1870  at  80,000.  General  Booth  expresses  the  belief  in  his 
book  'In  Darkest  England  and  the  Way  Out,'  that  that  great 
city  contains  100,000  of  these  wretched  women.  In  Paris, 
though  there  are  only  4,000  registered  prostitutes,  the  actual 
number  is  said  to  be  from  60,000  to  100,000.  Von  Dettingen 
thinks  there  are  from  25, 000  to  30, 000  of  this  class  of  females 
in  Berlin,  although  only  2,800  are  directly  controlled  by  the 
police.  In  the  year  1876,  16,198  women  were  arrested  in  that 


164  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

city  for  violations  of  the  regulations  issued  by  the  Police  of 
Morals.  In  Hamburg  in  1860  every  ninth  woman  above  the 
age  of  15  was  a  prostitute;  and  at  the  same  time  in  Leipzig  there 
were  at  least  2,000  women  depending  chiefly  upon  this  vicious 
calling  for  their  support.  In  our  principal  American  cities  the 
evil  is  as  great  as  in  those  of  Europe,  and  vast  armies  of  fallen 
women  are  maz-ching  to  a  speedy  death,  for  loathsome  diseases 
haunt  their  every  footstep,  and  dog  them  to  the  grave.  Mrs. 
Charlotte  Smith,  of  Boston,  who  is  engaged  in  the  work  of 
reclaiming  outcast  women,  says  that  there  are  500, 000  women  of 
this  class  in  the  United  States.  Sanger  calculates  that  the  aver- 
age life  of  prostitutes  the  world  over  is  only  seven  years.  As  the 
average  age  at  which  they  begin  their  sinful  occupation  is  about 
eighteen,  you  can  see  that  the  poor  creatures  who  constitute  the 
demimonde,  and  flaunt  their  finery  in  the  faces  of  the  decent 
element  of  every  community,  are  doomed  to  an  early  death.  Many 
of  them  commit  suicide;  many  are  murdered;  but  most  of  them 
rapidly  pass,  as  they  lose  their  charms,  to  lower  and  lower  haunts 
of  vice,  and  after  a  few  years  of  unspeakable  wretchedness  and 
misery,  find  a  resting-place  in  the  potter's  field." 

"O  Edward,  can  it  be  that  these  unfortunate  women  are  so 
short-lived?  If  that  is  so,  their  numbers  must  be  constantly 
recruited  from  the  little  girls  who  are  growing  up  around  us." 

"Yes,  indeed,  Matilda,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  little  inno- 
cents who  are  now  enjoying  the  happy  thoughtlessness  of  child- 
hood, and  whose  baby  prattle  perhaps  delights  the  fond  hearts  of 
loving  parents,  are  doomed  in  a  few  years  to  fill  the  vacant  ranks 
in  this  army  of  those  who  are  the  victims  of  man's  lust,  and 
inarch  mournfully  under  the  banners  of  sin  and  satan." 

"But  surely,  Edward,  these  girls  are  almost  entirely  taken 
from  the  lowest  order  of  people,  from  the  abodes  of  most  abject 
poverty  and  vice." 

"Vast  numbers  of  them  are,  but  there  is  a  constant  demand 
for  thousands  of  girls  of  refinement,  education,  and  accomplish- 
ments, who  by  their  beauty  and  brilliancy  may  brighten  the 
fashionable  and  glittering  establishments  where  the  wealthy  rout  B, 
debauchees,  and  libertines  come  to  satisfy  their  lust.  In  order 
that  these  palaces  of  sin  may  be  supplied  with  fresh  and  alluring 
maidens,  it  is  necessary  that  the  carefully-nurtured  and  tenderly- 
reared  daughters  of  the  rich  and  educated  should  be  attracted 
thither,  for  the  girls  who  come  from  the  habitations  of  want, 


INDUSTRIAL   PHASES   OF   THE   QUESTION.  165 

generally  lack  the  grace,   beauty,   and  charm  of  manner  which 
are  essential  in  the  occupants  of  these  great  houses  of  horror. ' ' 

"I  can  understand,  Edward,  that  there  might  be  a  demand 
for  this  class  of  girls,  but  I  utterly  fail  to  comprehend  how  it 
could  be  supplied." 

"In  every  large  community,"  said  Mr.  Notion,  "there  are 
men  and  women  called  procurers  and  procuresses,  whose  business 
it  is  to  pander  to  vice,  and  who  are  constantly  on  the  lookout  for 
new  victims.  They  haunt  the  places  of  travel,  the  employment 
offices,  the  hotels,  lodging-houses,  and  pleasure  resorts,  and 
keep  a  sharp  eye  on  the  public  schools.  In  innumerable  instances 
they  decoy  young  girls  away  from  home,  restrain  them  of  their 
liberty  in  rooms  far  beyond  the  reach  of  the  writ  of  habeas 
corjHis,  and  whose  deadened  walls  subdue  their  cries  of  anguish 
and  despair  in  that  awful  moment  when  they  are  ravished  of 
their  virtue.  In  other  cases  drugs  are  administered,  and  when 
the  victim  awakes,  she  makes  the  agonizing  discovery  that'that 
priceless  jewel,  her  woman's  honor,  is  lost.  Of  course  large 
numbers  of  young  women  are  betrayed  by  the  men  they  love, 
and  after  a  year  or  two  spent  as  the  mistress  of  some  rich  liber- 
tine, who  has  probably  daughters  of  his  own  at  home  or  travel- 
ing in  Europe,  finds  her  way  into  the  palatial  brothels  and 
assignation  houses  to  which  I  have  referred." 

"You  speak,  Edward,  of  girls  being  frequently  deprived  of 
their  liberty.  Surely  all  these  fallen  women  are  free  at  any 
moment  to  go  where  they  please,  and  can  if  they  so  desire  return 
to  their  homes  and  friends." 

"No,  Matilda,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  there  are  hundreds 
and  thousands  of  fallen  women  in  all  the  large  cities  of  Europe 
and  America  who  are  virtually  prisoners.  They  are  kept  con- 
stantly in  debt  to  the  keepers  of  the  bagnios  where  they  are 
confined,  and  do  not  own  their  gaudy  wearing  apparel.  In 
many  instances  they  can  not  speak  the  language  of  the  country 
whoie  they  live,  and  when  they  try  to  escape,  or  become  des- 
perate, and  refuse  to  continue  their  life  of  shame,  some  criminal 
charge  is  trumped  up  against  them,  and  legal  process  is  abused 
in  order  that  they  may  be  detained  in  captivity.  They  soon 
cease  the  hojreless  struggle,  and  resign  themselves  to  their  terrible 
fate.  In  a  hook  called  'Maiden  Tribute  to  Modern  Babylon,' 
the  facts  in  which  are  based  upon  the  exposures  published  some 
years  since  in  the  J*<ill  Mill  (iazette,  there  are  many  statements 


166  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

so  terrible  as  to  make  one  shudder.  It  contains  many  detailed 
accounts  of  how  women  were  enticed  into  brothels  in  England 
and  France,  and  deprived  of  their  liberty  for  years.  Among 
these  is  the  story  of  a  married  Avoman  who  spent  nearly  four 
years  in  a  house  of  ill-fame  in  Bordeaux,  where  she  had  been 
placed  by  a  scoundrelly  Greek,  who  once  kept  a  cigar  shop  in 
a  street  leading  off  Regent  Street,  and  who  took  her  and  three 
others  over  from  London  on  the  assurance  that  he  would  find 
them  good  situations  either  as  barmaids  or  in  gentlemen's  fam- 
ilies. Arrived  at  Bordeaux  they  were  taken  to  the  house  of 
Madame  Suchon,  36  Rue  Lambert,  which  they  believed  to  be 
a  hotel,  and  where  they  were  kindly  received.  In  a  day  or  two, 
however,  their  own  clothes  were  taken  away,  they  were  tricked 
out  in  silk  dresses  and  other  finery,  and  told  that  they  must 
receive  gentlemen.  Upon  their  saying  they  would  leave,  they 
were  told  that  they  each  owed  the  landlady  eighteen  hundred 
francs,  the  cost  of  their  transportation,  the  commission  of  the 
agent,  and  the  value  of  the  dresses.  Being  strangers  in  a  strange 
land,  and  ignorant  of  the  French  language,  they  were  powerless, 
and  had  to  submit  to  their  fate.  One  of  the  companions  of  this 
woman  was  subsequently  sent  to  South  America  as  a  virtual 
slave,  and  the  woman  herself  only  escaped  by  a  chance.  A 
man  from  Toulouse  took  a  fancy  to  her,  paid  off  all  her  debts, 
and  gave  her  money  to  pay  her  passage  to  London,  where  she 
rejoined  her  husband." 

"Do  you  really  think,    Edward,   that  there  are  many  such 
cases?" 

"I  feel  sure  of  it,"  replied  Mr.  Notion  with  emphasis. 
"W.  Joest,  in  his  book  of  travels  'From  Japan  to  Germany 
through  Siberia,'  says  that  the  German  people  would  do  better 
to  excite  themselves  over  the  dreadful  fate  of  German  girls  than 
about  the  slave  trade  in  Africa,  or  the  condition  of  affairs  in 
Cuba  and  Brazil.  He  then  says:  'They  would  do  better  to  take 
the  beam  out  of  their  own  eye,  for  in  no  country  in  the  world  is 
such  a  trade  with  white  slaves  carried  on  as  in  Germany  and 
Austria;  and  from  no  country  in  the  world  are  such  numbers  of 
these  human  wares  exported.  The  road  which  these  girls  take  can 
be  followed  exactly.  They  are  sent  from  Hamburg  to  South 
America;  Bahia  and  Rio  Janeiro  receive  their  quota,  but  the 
greater  number  is  intended  for  Montevideo  and  Buenoa  Ay  res 
while  the  small  remainder  pass  through  the  Straits  of 


INDUSTRIAL    PHASES    OF    THE   QUESTION.  167 

to  Valparaiso.  Another  batch  is  sent  direct,  or  via  England,  to 
North  America,  but  here  it  finds  difficulty  in  competing  with  the 
native  product,  and  is  therefore  dispersed  along  the  Mississippi  to 
New  Orleans  and  Texas,  or  westward  to  California;  from  thence 
the  coast  is  provided  as  far  as  Panama,  while  Cuba,  the  West 
Indies,  and  Mexico  receive  their  supply  from  New  Orleans. 
Under  the  title  of  "Bohemians"  other  troops  of  German  girls 
are  exported  over  the  Alps  into  Italy,  and  from  thence  further 
south  to  Alexandria,  Suez,  Bombay,  Calcutta,  and  Singapore, 
and  even  to  Hongkong  and  Shanghai.  Dutch  India,  the  East 
Indies,  and  Japan  are  bad  markets,  as  Holland  suffers  no  white 
girls  of  this  sort  in  its  colonies,  and  in  Japan  the  daughters  of 
the  country  are  too  good-looking  and  too  cheap.  Moreover, 
competition  from  San  Francisco  prevents  much  profitable  business 
from  being  done.  Russia  is  supplied  from  East  Prussia,  Poni- 
erania,  and  Poland.  The  first  station  is  generally  Riga.  Here 
the  dealers  from  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow  pick  out  what  suits 
them,  and  send  their  wares  in  large  numbers  to  Nischnij- 
Nowgorod  and  over  the  Oural  to  Irbit  and  Krestofsky,  as  far 
as  the  interior  of  Siberia;  I  met,  for  instance,  a  German  girl 
in  Tschita  who  had  been  negotiated  in  that  way.  This  enormous 
business  is  thoroughly  organized;  it  is  transacted  by  agents  and 
commercial  travelers,  and  if  the  Ministers  of  Foreign  Affairs 
were  to  demand  reports  from  all  the  German  consuls,  very  inter- 
esting statistical  tables  might  be  made  out.'  ' 

"Edward,  this  recital  makes  me  sick  at  heart,  and  I. tremble 
for  the  future  of  our  own  daughters.  In  the  midst  of  such  iniquity, 
what  girl  is  safe?" 

' '  I  am  sorry  to  say,  Matilda,  that  the  traffic  in  human  flesh  is 
not  confined  to  girls  who  have  attained  the  age  of  puberty.  Mrs. 
Clmrleton  Edholm,  in  her  book  called  'The  Traffic  in  Girls,' 
quotes  extensively  from  the  revelations  of  the  commission  of 
inquiry  appointed  by  Win.  T.  Stead,  the  proprietor  of  the  Pall 
Mall  Gazette,  and  gives  the  cases  of  young  girls  of  thirteen  and 
fourteen  years  of  age  who  had  been  entrapped  and  outraged  lu- 
men who  make  it  their  business  to  debauch  virgins.  One  beauti- 
ful little  girl  was  decoyed  into  a  house  conducted  for  such  pur- 
poses, and  imprisoned  in  a  room  until  the  man  should  come  who 
was  to  rob  her  of  her  virginity.  When  he  came,  she  recognized 
him  as  her  own  father,  and  threw  herself  weeping  into  his  arms. 
There  is  or  was  a  house  in  London  where  virgins  are  examined, 


168  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

and  certificates  of  their  virginity  issued;  and  in  the  same  estab- 
lishment  the  same  girls  are  '  repaired '  after  their  ruin  has  been 
accomplished.  From  Mrs.  Edholm's  book  I  learn  that  little 
mites  five  and  six  years  old  sometimes  fall  victims  to  the  lust  of 
human  monsters.  Sister  Emma  in  her  home  at  Hants  has  more 
than  fifty  children,  all  of  whom  were  received  under  twelve.  In 
only  four  cases  was  the  man  punished." 

"The  more  shame  to  you  men,"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Notion 
earnestly,  "for  you  are  the  judges  and  jurors  who  pass  upon 
all  these  cases." 

"And  now,  my  dear,  before  we  leave  this  branch  of  the  sub- 
ject, I  shall  briefly  review  the  causes  of  prostitution,  so  far  as  I 
have  been  able  to  discover  them.  They  are  as  follows:  The 
influx  of  inexperienced  country  girls  into  the  cities,  where  they 
fall  an  easy  prey  to  the  procurers.  The  inability  of  working- 
women  to  support  themselves  by  honest  industry.  The  wiles  of 
the  professional  procurer  and  procuress,  who  entrap  virgins,  and 
sell  the  privilege  of  despoiling  them  of  their  virginity.  The 
avarice  of  parents,  who  sometimes  demand  from  their  daughters 
a  certain  amount  per  week,  regardless  of  where  or  how  it  is 
obtained.  The  vanity  of  weak-minded  and  foolish  girls  who 
want  to  dress  flashily,  and  indulge  freely  in  expensive  pleasures, 
and  easily  yield  to  what  they  believe  to  be  the  rewards  of  immor- 
ality. The  love  of  the  stage,  which  seizes  so  many  young  girls, 
who  are  thus  brought  into  evil  associations,  and  often  stranded  on 
the  road,  where  they  fall  a  prey  to  the  temptations  which  beset 
them.  The  real  or  fancied  neglect  or  cruelty  of  stepmothers, 
and  the  harshness  of  parents,  which  often  drives  girls  from  home. 
The  desertion  of  young  wives  by  husbands,  and  the  intemperance 
and  brutality  which  so  often  drive  wives  away  from  their  homes. 
The  seduction  of  young  girls  under  promise  of  marriage.  Beer 
gardens,  concert  halls,  night  drives,  public  balls,  night  picnics 
and  excursions,  and  the  facilities  for  unrestrained  intercourse 
between  the  sexes  which  these  things  promote.  Hasty  and  ill- 
as.-orted  marriages,  and  especially  marriages  by  well-meaning  but 
deluded  young  women  with  smooth,  plausible,  genteel-appearing 
confidence  men,  who  gradually  train  their  wives  into  accomplices, 
and  often  lead  them  into  prostitution.  A  low  standard  of  virtue, 
which  causes  some  women  to  think  that  so  long  as  they  live  only 
with  one  man,  it  makes  little  difference  whether  they  do  so  as 
wife  or  mistress.  The  habit  of  using  strong  drink,  opium,  mor- 


INDUSTRIAL   PHASES   OF  THE   QUESTION.  169 

phine  or  cocaine,  which  benumbs  the  nobler  qualities  of  modesty, 
self-respect,  and  love  of  chastity,  and  awakens  in  their  stead  the 
hitherto  slumbering  fires  of  sinful  passion.  These  habits  are 
generally  acquired  through  the  recklessness  of  physicians  in  pre- 
scribing drugs  and  liquors.  Some  women  become  prostitutes  to 
gratify  their  own  unbridled  lusts,  and  some  are  trained  for  the 
calling  from  early  childhood.  These  are  the  hardest  to  reach." 

"But,  Edward,  don't  you  think  that  much  is  being  done  in 
this  country  to  reclaim  these  unfortunates,  and  to  prevent  the 
ruin  of  others  ?  ' ' 

"Yes,  Matilda,  as  you  know,  the  Florence  Crittenton  Rescue 
Homes  and  Missions  are  doing  a  great  work  in  this  direction. 
Other  similar  homes  for  erring  women,  notably  those  established 
by  the  Salvation  Army,  are  accomplishing  a  great  good ;  besides 
which  the  efforts  along  the  line  of  social  purity  by  the  Women's 
Christian  Temperance  Union  and  other  societies,  and  the  move- 
ment to  raise  the  age  of  consent,  are  very  helpful.  But,  after  all, 
the  great  stream  of  prostitution  flows  steadily  on,  and  during  all 
the  ages  has  defied  the  efforts  of  Christians  and  philanthropists 
and  statesmen,  either  to  reduce  its  volume,  or  to  eradicate  it 
in  toto.  It  is  not  a  necessary  evil,  as  many  thoughtlessly  and 
wickedly  claim,  for  it  aggravates  all  the  evils  of  which  it  is 
supposed  to  be  a  preventive;  but  thus  far  it  has  proved  to  be  an 
incurable  one." 

' '  You  have  horrified  me,  Edward,  by  these  awful  disclosures ; 
but  hereafter  I  shall  sympathize  more  than  ever  with  my 
fallen  sisters,  and  do  what  little  lies  within  my  power  to  rescue 
them  from  their  deplorable  condition.  But  my  feelings  have 
been  so  overwrought  by  the  sad  circumstances  which  you  have 
stated,  that  I  must  ask  you  to  desist,  in  order  that  I  may  try  to 
find  rest  in  sleep." 


Mr.  and  Mrs.  Notion  Continue  Their  Discussion 
of  Woman  in  the  Industrial  Sphere. 


"The  woman's  cause  is  man's;  they  rise  or  sink  together,  dwarfed 
or  godlike,  bond  or  free;  if  she  be  small,  slight-natured,  miserable,  how 
shall  man  grow  ?  " — Tennyson. 


"  Why  are  our  bodies  soft  and  weak  and  smooth, 
Unapt  to  toil  and  trouble  in  the  world, 
But  that  our  soft  conditions  and  our  hearts 
Shall  well  agree  with  our  external  parts?  " 

— Shakespeare. 

' '  Now,  Matilda, ' '  said  Mr.  Notion,  ' '  it  will  he  well  for  us, 
perhaps,  before  proceeding  further  with  the  discussion  of  this 
phase  of  our  subject,  to  briefly  sum  up  the  facts  which  we  have 
thus  far  brought  out.  As  I  remember  them,  we  are  agreed  that 
a  very  large  percentage  of  the  women  of  civilized  lands  are 
single;  that  in  some  countries  the  unmarried  constitute  more  than 
forty  per  cent  of  the  women  over  twenty  years  of  age;  that  large 
numbers  of  these  women,  have  invaded  the  industrial  arena 
formerly  occupied  almost  exclusively  by  men;  that  the  process 
of  the  displacement  of  male  by  female  labor  is  still  rapidly  going 
on;  that  many  of  the  callings  in  which  women  are  largely 
engaged  are  highly  injurious  to  health,  and  often  destructive  to 
life;  that  as  an  almost  invariable  rule  women  workers  accept 
much  smaller  compensation  than  that  demanded  by  the  men; 
that  many  men  are  now  doing  housework,  while  their  female  rela- 
tives are  earning  a  livelihood  for  the  family;  that  in  numerous 
instances  the  labor  of  women  has  to  be  supplemented  by  that  of 
children  in  order  that  the  family  may  be  maintained;  that  large 
numbers  of  women  work  for  wages  below  the  standard  of  sub- 
sistence, and  as  a  result  many  of  them  increase  their  earnings  by 
prostitution,  and  finally  become  professional  courtezans;  that 
among  the  female  wage-earners  are  a  considerable  proportion  of 
married  women,  whose  labors  manifestly  unfit  them  for  the  proper 

(170) 


INDUSTRIAL   PHASES   OF   THE   QUESTION.  171 

discharge  of  their  wifely  and  maternal  functions,  and  that  thus  a 
great  wrong  is  done  to  the  family  and  child  life. ' ' 

"I  think,"  said  Mrs.  Notion,  "that  you  have  stated  quite 
fairly  the  ground  we  went  over  in  our  last  talk.  But,  so  far, 
you  have  had  little  to  say  about  your  own  ideas  in  regard  to 
these  facts,  and  I  have  listened  in  vain  for  the  suggestion  of  any 
remedy  for  the  existing  condition  of  affairs.  Now  Helen  Camp- 
bell, who  has  given  the  subject  exhaustive  investigation,  says: 
'The  entire  movement  appears  to  me  a  part  of  the  natural  evolu- 
tion from  barbaric  law  and  restriction,  and  a  necessary  demon- 
stration of  the  spiritual  equality  of  the  sexes.  I  regard  it  also 
as  the  nurse  and  developer  of  many  small  virtues  in  which  women 
are  especially  deficient — punctuality,  unvarying  quality  of  work, 
a  sense  of  business  honor,  and  of  personal  fidelity  to  each  and 
each  to  all.  But  I  can  not  feel  that  it  is  a  permanent  state,  or 
that  when  the  essential  ha.s  been  accomplished,  women  will  have 
the  same  need  or  the  same  desire  that  now  rules.  I  believe  that 
wages  must  necessarily  fluctuate  and  tend  to  the  mere  point  of 
subsistence  when  either  child  labor  or  the  lowest  grade  of 
woman's  labor  exists,  and  that  the  only  way  out  of  the  compli- 
cations we  face  is  an  alteration  of  ideals.  Statistics  and  general 
reports  show  the  demoralization  of  family  life  where  such  work 
goes  on,  and  the  fact  that  in  the  long  run  the  workman  loses 
rather  than  gains  where  his  family  share  his  labor.'  What 
think  you,  Edward,  of  these  views  ? ' ' 

"I  think,  Matilda,  that  it  is  a  crying  shame  to  see  women 
unsexing  themselves,  and  crowding  men  out  of  employment  in 
every  direction.  I  don't  believe  that  there  is  any  spiritual 
equality  of  the  sexes  about  it.  I  have  tried  to  show  you  in  our 
previous  talks  that  the  physical  and  psychological  differences 
between  men  and  women  are  such  that  their  paths  in  life  should 
and  must  be  radically  different;  that  the  former  are  fitted  for  the 
rough,  hard  work  of  the  world,  while  the  latter  are  best  adapted 
to  the  duties  of  the  fireside.  I  admit  that  there  are  exceptions  to 
every  rule,  but  I  declare  most  emphatically  that  as  a  rule  women 
should  find  their  highest  usefulness  and  chief  delight  in  the  sacred 
duties  of  the  home. ' ' 

"  But  you  forget,  Edward,  that  millions  of  women  are  thrust 
out  into  the  world  by  circumstances  over  which  they  have  no 
control,  and  that  they  are  not  in  a  position  to  choose  their  sphere 
in  life,  but  must  seize  the  first  opportunity  which  presents  itself 


172  noMKSTir  nri;i>. 


for  earning  a  livelihood.  I  heartily  concur  in  your  view  that  the 
home  is  the  ideal  place  for  woman's  presence  and  activities,  and 
that  in  the  future  as  in  the  past  the  majority  of  my  sex  will  there 
abide,  but  what  would  you  do  with  the  constantly-increasing 
army  of  women  who  are  self-dependent  for  subsistence?" 

"Their  numbers  are  grossly  exaggerated,  Matilda.  Of  the 
forty  per  cent  of  women  over  twenty  years  of  age  \vli<>  arc  single, 
it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  larger  proportion  will  marry  before  they 
are  twenty-five,  and  those  who  are  destined  to  live  a  single  lite 
usually  find  hpmes  either  with  their  parents  or  their  married 
brothers  or  sisters.  In  the  generality  of  cases  these,  unmarried 
women  are  gladly  welcomed  into  the  families  of  their  relatives,  and 
find  many  ways  in  which  to  make  themselves  useful  and  agree- 
able about  the  household.  We  are  all  familiar  with  the  beloved 
aunt  who  voluntarily  refrained  from  matrimony,  and  who  in  a 
thousand  ways  lightened  the  domestic  labors  of  her  married  sister, 
and  won  the  lifelong  affection  of  her  nephews  and  nieces.  In  the 
old  days  the  household  which  was  not  blessed  and  brightened  by 
such  an  occupant  was  an  exception." 

"But  such  a  life,"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Xotion,  "is  intensely  galling 
and  irksome  to  a  woman  of  spirit.  It  is  too  dependent,  too 
humiliating;  and  no  self-respecting  woman  will  be  content  to 
occupy  permanently  the  position  of  a  pensioner  upon  the  bounty 
of  any  one.  '  ' 

"I  am  glad  to  say,"  replied  Mr.  Notion,  "that  there  are 
many  womanly  ways  in  which  a  spinster  can  earn  a  comfortahle 
support  for  herself.  The  profession  of  teaching  has  fallen  almost 
exclusively  into  female  hands,  and  scores  of  thousands  of  intelli- 
gent and  estimable  women  maintain  themselves  and  do  invaluable 
service  in  this  calling.  The  business  of  dressmaking  is  largely 
conducted  by  women,  and  offers  a  wide  field  for  their  remunera- 
tive energies.  Saleswomen  are  numerous  in  nearly  all  our  large- 
dry  goods  establishments,  and  I  see  nothing  in  that  occupation 
which  is  not  entirely  in  keeping  with  womanly  delicacy  and 
refinement.  And  then,  for  those  who  are  not  sufficiently  intelli- 
gent and  well-educated  to  avail  themselves  of  these  avenues  of 
industry,  there  remains  the  lucrative,  comfortable,  and  instructive 
iidd  of  domestic  service.  There  is  no  good  reason  why  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  bright  American  girls  should  not  earn  a  living  in 
this  way,  and  at  the  same  time  acquire  the  art  of  housekeeping, 
thus  fitting  themselves  for  the  proper  performance  of  their  own 


INDUSTRIAL    PHASES   OF    THE    QUESTION.  173i 

housewifely  and  matronly  duties,  in  the  event  that  the  future  has 
such  in  store  for  them.  But,  as  you  know  full  well,  our  Amer- 
ican girls  turn  up  their  noses  at  the  thought  of  domestic  service, 
and,  rather  than  become  'servants,'  willingly  work  in  some  dirty 
factory,  where  they  are  subjected  to  all  sorts  of  hardships  and 
humiliations." 

"  O  Edward,  you  touch  a  sore  point,  indeed,  when  you 
allude  to  the  servant-girl  question.  Though  I  am  far  from  agree- 
ing with  you  in  your  general  views  regarding  female  industry,  I 
must  own  that  the  attitude  of  our  girls  with  reference  to  household 
service  is  unreasonable  and  indefensible.  I  am  sure  that  'hired 
help, '  as  the  old  phrase  went,  are  better  paid,  more  comfortable, 
and  safer  from  influences  that  menace  virtue  than  are  the  girls 
in  factory,  shop,  and  office.  Besides,  my  own  experience  as  a 
housekeeper  convinces  me  that  the  girls  who  do  condescend  to  do 
light  housework  are  generally  very  hard  to  get  along  with.  Some 
are  lazy,  some  slovenly,  some  grossly  ill-bred,  some  impudent, 
some  dishonest,  some  tyrannical,  and  all  ungrateful.  I  have  set 
it  down  as  an  invariable  rule  that  when  I  do  some  especial  favor 
for  my  servant,  or  make  some  great  sacrifice  on  her  account,  she 
will  surely  treat  me  badly.  You  know,  Edward,  that  this  is  so. 
I  could  enumerate  all  the  girls  we  have  ever  had,  and  tell  what  I 
did  for  them,  and  how  basely  they  requited  my  kindness  and  self- 
denial.  I  do  like  to  make  my  girls  happy,  to  put  them  on  a 
plane  of  equality,  to  interest  myself  in  their  welfare,  to  plan  for 
their  comfort  and  pleasure;  but  they  can  not  endure  it.  AVhen 
I  am  kind  to  them,  they  think  I  am  afraid  of  them;  when  I  tr\r 
to  please  them  very  much,  they  make  up  their  minds  that  I  am 
preparing  to  take  some  undue  advantage  of  them;  when  I  treat 
them  as  my  equals,  they  become  overbearing  and  disrespectful; 
when  I  give  them  a  handsome  present,  or  make  some  special 
effort  to  contribute  to  their  happiness,  they  conclude  that  I  am 
one  of  the  foolish  women  who  can  be  imposed  upon  with  impunity, 
and  that  their  services  are  so  indispensable  that  I  will  endure  any 
indignity  rather  than  let  them  go." 

"And  yet,  Matilda,  you  tell  me  that  some  of  your  lady  friends 
have  none  of  this  trouble  with  their  help,  and  I  think  I  have 
heard  you  say  that  Mrs.  Wisehead  kept  the  same  servant  for  five 
years." 

"Yes,"  admitted  Mrs.  Notion,  "she  is  one  of  the  luckiest 
women  in  that  respect  that  I  have  ever  known.  That  girl  of  hers 
is  a  treasure,  indeed.  I  do  wish  I  could  find  such  a  jewel." 


,174  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

"But,  Matilda,"  suggested  Mr.  Notion  with  unusual  blumlm  — 
;uid  suavity,  "is  it  not  barely  possible  that  Mrs.  Wisehead's 
success  in  this  regard  is  at  least  partly  due  to  her  good  man- 
agement and  faculty  of  discipline  ?  I  have  observed  that  she 
is  a  very  self-possessed  person,  and  the  few  remarks  I  have  had 
the  pleasure  of  hearing  her  make  have  been  so  judicious  that  I 
was  forced  to  conclude  she  was.  a  decidedly  superior  woman. ' ' 

"There  you  go  again  with  your  cruel  insinuations!  "  exclaimed 
Mrs.  Notion.  "You  are  one  of  the  most  unreasonable  men  I 
have  ever  met...  You  always  throw  the  blame  on  me  when  any- 
thing goes  wrong.  I  suppose  you  think  all  the  fault  is  mine 
when  one  of  our  girls  leaves  us  on  an  hour's  notice.  It  is  a  pity 
you  do  not  have  to  manage  the  girls  yourself.  I  know  they  all 
think  you  are  a  very  fine  gentleman,  and  that  I  am  the  black 
sheep  of  the  household.  You  do  not  have  to  suffer  from  their 
laziness,  neglect,  and  impudence.  They  are  on  their  good 
behavior  when  you  are  around.  Oh,  yes;  it  is  very  easy  for  you 
to  smile  graciously  upon  them,  and  address  them  in  dulcet  tone.-! 
Your  nerves  are  not  tried  by  their  caprices  and  hateful  ness,  and 
I  have  noticed  that  you  are  always  on  dress  parade  when  the 
hired  girl  is  around.  But  you  may  imagine  how  pleasant  it  is 
for  me  to  stay  here  and  drudge  for  you  and  your  children,  and 
know  all  the  time  that  every  girl  who  has  left  this  house  has  been 
your  ardent  admirer  and  my  bitter  enemy.  Oh,  they  must  have 
given  me  a  beautiful  reputation  by  this  time!  And  yet  I  was  the 
one  who  always  made  the  sacrifices  for  their  welfare,  for,  if  they 
had  only  known  it,  you,  with  all  your  smiles  and  graciousness, 
would  not  have  caused  yourself  one  moment's  inconvenience  to 
save  their  lives.  And  so  far  as  Mrs.  Wisehead  is  concerned,  it 
is  really  too  bad  that  you  did  not  get  her  for  your  wife  instead 
of  me.  If  it  were  not  for  your  prejudice  against  divorces,  it  might 
still  be  possible  for  you  to  make  this  matter  right.  I  assure  you 
that  you  will  have  no  trouble  in  getting  rid  of  me.  Have  no 
uneasiness  on  that  account.  I  got  along  before  I  saw  yon,  and  I 
can  go  out  and  earn  a  living  for  myself  in  some  way,  without  any 
of  your  help.  Rest  assured,  sir,  that  I  am  ready  to  leave  at  any 
time.  But  I  don't  know  whether  Mrs.  \Visehead  would  be 
willing  to  leave  her  husband  in  order  to  take  my  vacant  place.  I 
have  no  doubt,  however,  that  if  she  were  inclined  to  make  the 
change,  you  would  soon  find  good  reasons  to  convince  yourself 
that  your  former  views  with  reference  to  divorce  were  erroneous. 


INDUSTRIAL    PHASES   OF   THE   QUESTION.  175 

Such  a  change  of  front  would  be  in  perfect  keeping  with  your 
well-known  character  as  a  progressive  man." 

"But,  Matilda— 

"Oh,  yes,  I  understand  your  position  thoroughly,  sir,  and  you 
can  spare  yourself  the  trouble  of  all  buts  and  howevers,  for  no 
explanation  is  necessary!  " 

' '  Just  one  word,  dear.     You  have  certainly — 

1 '  That  will  do,  SIT.  I  suppose  you  want  to  make  me  believe 
that  I  misunderstand  you;  but  I  have  been  living  with  you  too 
many  years  not  to  comprehend  you  perfectly.  This  is  not  the 
first  time  you  have  insulted  me.  On  other  occasions  I  have  beer, 
foolish  and  weak  enough  to  let  you  persuade  me  that  no  harm 
was  intended,  but  this  time  I  have  made  no  mistake.  Your 
meaning  is  obvious.  You  are  tired  of  me.  I  am  getting  old 
and  unattractive.  I  have  not — " 

Here  Mrs.  Notion  broke  down  and  had  a  good  cry,  during 
the  course  of  which  her  husband  had  an  opportunity  to  assure 
her  that  he  had  no  intention  to  reflect  upon  her  in  the  least,  or  to 
hurt  her  feelings  in  any  way.  After  much  comforting  on  his 
part,  and  many  earnest  protestations  of  undying  affection,  she 
gradually  dried  her  tears,  and  the  interrupted  conversation  was 
resumed. 

' '  Believe  me,  my  darling,  the  only  point  I  wished  to  make 
was  that  in  many  cases  the  mistresses  as  well  as  the  servants  were 
to  blame  for  the  unsatisfactory  manner  in  which  their  intercourse 
is  conducted,  and  I  was  about  to  say  that  your  kindness  and 
indulgence,  coupled  with  lack  of  skill  in  judging  of  human 
nature,  perhaps  prevented  you  from  training  your  servants  as 
strictly  and  thoroughly  as  you  otherwise  might  have  done.  I 
have  sometimes  been  inclined  to  suspect  that  as  a  rule  the  girls 
got  the  start  of  you  in  the  very  beginning,  and  for  the  reason 
that  you  did  not  insist  from  the  outset  in  their  according  you  the 
respect  and  consideration  which  your  position  deserved." 

"I  thought,  sir,  that  your  remarks  indicated  a  lack  of  sym- 
pathy Avith  me  in  my  troubles,  and  a  desire  to  criticise  me 
unfairly,  and  contrast  me  unfavorably  with  the  wives  of  other 
men.  As  you  are  well  aware,  Mr.  Notion,  I  never  object  to  just 
criticism,  but  I  can  not  endure  anything  like  carping  censure,  or 
invidious  comparisons  between  other  women  and  myself.  I  think 
as  your  faithful  wife  and  the  mother  of  your  children  during  all 
these  years,  I  should  be  entirely  exempt  from  comments  of  that 


176  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

kind.  But  let  that  pass.  I  have  accepted  your  explanation, 
and  desire  you  to  proceed  as  though  nothing  had  occurred  to 
break  the  even  thread  of  your  discourse." 

"I  was  trying  to  show,  my  dear,  that  a  large  proportion  of 
the  unmarried  women  of  this  country  need  not  engage  in  labor 
unsuited  to  their  sex,  and,  among  other  vocations  admirably 
adapted  to  women,  I  mentioned  that  of  a  domestic  servant.  It 
is  well,  also,  to  remember  that  there  are  many  women  who  belong 
to  wealthy  families,  and  are  consequently  entirely  freed  from 
the  necessity  of  earning  their  livelihood." 

.  "But  you  must  admit,  Edward,  that  a  considerable  proportion 
of  the  women  who  are  crowding  into  pursuits  formerly  occupied 
exclusively  by  men  are  driven  to  it  by  absolute  necessity,  and  hence 
that  they  are  not  to  be  blamed  for  the  resulting  disturbance  of 
economic  and  social  conditions." 

"No,  Matilda,  1  am  not  prepared  lo  make  any  such  admission. 
I  have  watched  this  movement  with  keen  interest,  and  I  realized 
from  the  first  that  it  was  fraught  with  grave  consequences.  It 
has  been  brought  about  in  less  than  a  generation.  Twenty  years 
ago  women  worked  in  factories,  stores,  and  private  houses.  They 
taught  school,  engaged  in  such  lines  of  business  as  dressmaking 
and  millinery,  held  quite  a  number  of  subordinate  government 
clerkships,  and  earned  money  by  their  needle.  But  the  office 
work  of  banks,  insurance  agencies,  brokers,  railroads,  and  other 
similar  places,  was  done  wholly  by  men.  The  bookkeepers  were 
all  of  the  male  sex.  Men  were  found  exclusively  in  photograph 
galleries,  and  the  lady  telegraph  operator  was  in  a  hopeless 
minority.  All  the  professions  were  a  terra  incognita  to  your  sex. 
But  since  then  what  a  revolution!  It  has  been  almost  magical 
in  its  startling  rapidity.  It  reminds  me  of  the  sudden  drawing 
aside  of  a  curtain  at  the  stage,  and  the  resulting  change  of  scene 
and  characters.  Now  the  women  are  everywhere.  They  crowd 
you  in  the  restaurants,  the  same  restaurants  where  twenty  years 
ago  their  presence,  especially  at  the  time  of  luncheon,  would  have 
attracted  comment.  They  have  pressed  hard  against  the  means  of 
subsistence  of  the  male  waiter,  and  I  thought  at  one  time  that  he 
would  soon  have  to  join  the  ranks  of  the  unemployed.  1  begin 
to  think  now,  though,  that  he  may  be  able  to  earn  a  living  by 
waiting  upon  the  lady  patrons  of  restaurants.  I  have  observed 
that  in  the  eating-houses  generally  patronized  by  ladies  the  waiters 
are  young  men,  while  in  those  which  gentlemen  frequent,  pretty 
women  waitresses  are  in  attendance." 


INDUSTRIAL    PHASES    OF   THE    QUESTION.  177 

"Please  call   them   waiters,    Edward.     We   don't   like   such 
obsolete  words  as  waitress,  actress,  poetess,  authoress,  doctress,  etc." 

"And  what  a  change,  Matilda,  has  come  over  the  profession  of 
journalism!  Twenty  years  ago,  when  I  was  a  scribe,  the  lady 
journalist  had  not  appeared  upon  the  scene.  Now  she  is  numer- 
ously represented,  and  the  male  reporters  have  to  compete  con- 
stantly with  those  of  your  sex.  The  lady  clerk  waits  upon  you 
in  the  lawyer's  office,  and  attends  to  your  business  in  the  insurance 
office,  the  railroad  office,  the  bank,  the  photograph  gallery,  the 
hotel,  and  a)l  similar  establishments.  Women  are  now  the 
cashiers,  bookkeepers,  and  stenographers.  They  operate  all  the 
typewriters,  and  have  completely  monopolized  the  work  of  tran- 
scription for  phonographic  reporters  which  was  done  by  men 
twenty  years  ago.  In  fact,  many  of  them  are  court  reporters, 
and  they  threaten  to  drive  the  male  stenographer  out  of  business 
everywhere.  They  run  the  telephone  offices,  the  telegraph  offices, 
the  candy  stores  and  ice-cream  stands,  the  bakeries,  and  many  of 
the  cigar  stands.  As  yet  they  have  not  gained  much  of  a  foot- 
hold in  the  shoe  stores,  and  the  elevator  boy  still  holds  the  fort. 
But  I  expect  very  soon  to  see  them  drive  him  ignominiously  out 
of  his  stronghold,  und  send  the  shoe  clerk  to  keep  him  company." 

"I  think,  Edward,  that  it  would  be  much  more  delicate  and 
proper  to  have  lady  shoe  clerks." 

' '  If  the  other  women  are  of  your  opinion,  Matilda,  the  poor 
fellow  who  fits  on  women's  shoes  will  have  to  become  a  tramp; 
but  I  sometimes  think  that  most  of  the  women  like  to  have  a  nice- 
looking  young  man  try  on  eight  or  ten  pairs  of  shoes,  and  that 
that  is  the  reason  why  he  still  holds  his  job.  But,  my  dear, 
don't  you  sympathize  with  us  in  our  distress?  About  the  only 
lines  of  business  we  have  the  monopoly  of  now  are  hod-carrying, 
digging  in  the  streets  and  sewers,  running  the  street-cars,  build- 
ing houses,  and  sailing  ships.  But  you  have  given  me  warning 
that  we  can  not  hope  even  to  retain  this  much  longer.  You 
remind  me  that  girls  act  as  street-car  conductors  in  Chile,  and 
make  a  success  of  it,  and  I  am  painfully  aware  that  the  women  of 
Germany  have  demonstrated  their  ability  to  do  hod-carrying  and 
all  kinds  of  laboring  work.  So  far,  mechanics'  unions  have  kept 
women  out  of  the  building  trades;  but  since  the  typesetting 
machine  has  come  into  vogue,  your  sisters  have  invaded  the 
printing  offices,  and  I  fear  they  will  soon  learn  all  the  other 
trades. ' ' 

12 


178  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

"  How  can  Ave  ao  it,  Ed,  when  the  men  won't  let  us  join  their 
unions,  or  apprentice  ourselves  as  the  boys  do  to  learn  a  trade?" 

"  You  forget,  my  dear,  that  manual  training  is  rapidly  heroin- 
ing  a  part  of  the  common-school  education,  and  the  girls  are 
quietly  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  mechanical  employments  which 
will  enable  them  in  a  few  years  to  press  the  boys  to  the  wall.  I 
fear  the  men  generally  do  not  see  the  drift  of  this  innovation,  or 
its  inevitable  consequences.  If  the  workingmen  had  observed  it, 
I  suspect  that  they  would  have  cried  out  against  it  ere  this.  The 
mischief  now  is  irreparable,  however,  for  the  women  are  begin- 
ning to  assume  the  elective  franchise,  and  when  they  commence 
to  vote,  our  opportunity  to  protect  ourselves  will  be  forever 
gone. ' ' 

"Surely  you  speak  in  jest,  Edward." 

"No,  indeed,  I  am  in  sober  earnest.  I  have  pondered  over 
your  remarks  of  the  other  evening  relative  to  the  influence  of 
new  inventions  upon  women's  employments,  and  I  agree  with  you 
that  in  a  short  time  the  only  place  for  man  will  be  where  the 
women  are  physically  unable  to  compete  with  him;  and  that  area 
will  be  constantly  contracted  by  labor-saving  machinery." 

"You  take  an  extreme  view,  Edward.  Most  of  the  women 
will  not  need  to  work,  and  you  don't  suppose  they  will  compete 
with  the  men  for  fun,  do  you  ? ' ' 

"Your  question  is  twofold,  Matilda,  and  requires  a  twofold 
answer.  In  the  first  place,  if  this  process  continues,  the  num- 
ber of  women  who  need  to  work  will  rapidly  increase.  It  is 
perfectly  obvious  that  every  woman  who  drives  a  man  out  of 
employment  makes  it  necessary  for  another  woman  to  find  work. 
If  one-half  of  the  women  work  for  fun,  the  other  half,  or  a 
large  proportion  of  them,  will  have  to  work  for  bread.  Secondly. 
I  really  think  that  thousands  of  girls  do  work  for  fun.  They 
like  to  show  the  young  men  that  they  are  in  no  whit  their  infe- 
riors, that  they  are  perfectly  independent,  and  that  they  can 
compete  with  them  on  even  terms  at  any  time.  This  gives  them 
a  certain  sort  of  advantage,  and  when  a  young  fellow  has  the 
temerity  to  marry,  his  wife  usually  gets  the  whip  hand  right  at 
the  start.  This  advantage  she  easily  retains.  I  tell  you,  Matilda, 
that  when  a  man  has  to  compete  with  women  all  day,  and  go 
home  and  have  another  woman  boss  him  at  night,  his  lot  is  not  a 
verv  enviable  one.  Let  us  consider  the  case  of  a  mechanic  who 
marries  a  young  woman  who  has  been  accustomed  to  earn  her 


riiAS!:s  OF  Tii;:  ^rrxnox.  179 

own  living  as  a  clerk,  or  in  some  other  capacity  where  she  has 
had  to  compete  with  men.  Suppo.se  he  is  out  of  work  half  the 
time,  or  is  absolutely  unable  to  find  employment  at  all,  and  his" 
wife  sneers  at  him,  and  reminds  him  over  and  over  again  of 
the  fact  that  she  could  earn  more  herself  if  she  were  free  from 
the  cares  of  the  household.  How  do  you  think  a  man  of  any 
spirit  would  feel  under  such  circumstances?" 

"But  no  true  woman,  Edward,  would  thus  taunt  her  husband. 
The  loving,  faithful  wife  would  say  nothing,  but  would  silently 
go  to  work  and  earn  the  money  which  the  family  required,  and 
which  her  husband  was  not  able  to  obtain." 

"Granted,  my  dear,  but  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  all  women  are 
not  of  that  caliber.  Still,  even  in  the  case  winch  you  suggest, 
the  man's  lot  would  be  pitiful,  and  you  can  see  that  he  must 
soon  relapse  into  the  position  of  the  housekeeper.  His  wife  can 
not  work  all  day  for  wages  and  do  the  housework,  too.  I  tell 
you,  Matilda,  that  when  a  man  can  no  longer  occupy  the  place 
of  bread-earner,  he  must  soon  fall  into  his  true  position  of  house- 
keeper. ' ' 

"But  don't  you  think,  Ned,  that  women  are  elevated  by 
their  ability  to  earn  a  living  for  themselves;  that  they  become 
more  independent,  and  can  either  marry  a  husband  of  their 
choice,  or  refrain  from  matrimony  altogether?  Under  the  old 
system,  you  know,  many  girls  were  almost  compelled  to  marry 
in  order  to  get  a  home.  This  was  all  wrong.  It  looks  no\v  as 
though  the  bright,  talented  girl  would  be  able  to  wait  for  her 
equal  as  a  husband;  and  I  am  sure  that  is  a  good  thing." 

"It  certainly  seems  to  be  a  very  good  thing,  Matilda,  for  a  girl 
to  be  independent,  and  yet  I  feel  that  there  is  something  unnatural 
about  it.  I  can  not  dissociate  the  idea  of  femininity  from  that 
of  weakness,  dependence,  delicacy,  and  need  of  protection.  The 
strength,  independence,  and  general  robustness  which  so  many 
women  claim  now  as  the  heritage  of  their  sex,  strike  me  as 
unwomanly,  and  contrary  to  the  highest  female  ideals.  You  will 
doubtless  vote  me  an  old  fogy,  entirely  out  of  place  in  this  age 
of  change  and  progress,  but  the  feeling  is  too  deeply  ingrained  in 
my  nature  to  be  eradicated.  Men  were  formerly  proud  of  the 
privilege,  and  the  ability  of  protecting  and  cherishing  their  wives, 
sisters,  and  daughters;  but,  if  women  are  to  be  their  physical 
and  mental  equals,  and  are  to  meet  them  on  a  plane  of  perfect 
equality  as  their  competitors  in  every  avenue  of  activity,  all 


180  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

necessity  for  protecting  and  cherishing  the  so-culled  gentler  sex- 
will  have  ceased  to  exist.  Women  heretofore  have  not  waited  for 
"their  equals  (in  the  sense  in  which  you  use  the  word)  to  espouse 
them  in  matrimony,  but  have  gladly  permitted  their  affections  to 
center  in  the  man  whom  they  regarded  as  their  superior  in 
wisdom,  knowledge,  power,  and  courage." 

"But  you  would  not  have  them  marry  their  social  inferiors,  I 
am  sure,"  said  Mrs.  Notion;  "and  that  is  what  I  had  in  mind 
when  I  spoke  of  their  waiting  for  their  equals  as  husbands." 

"And  yet  I  fear,  Matilda,  that  the  ability  of  a  woman  to 
compete  with  men,  and  to  do  their  work  for  less  wages,  will  not 
aid  her  in  mating  with  a  social  equal.  It  is  just  that  process 
which  is  rapidly  decreasing  the  number  of  marriageable  men, 
and,  as  I  assured  you  on  a  previous  occasion,  true  men  are  still 
sufficiently  imbued  with  the  old  sentiments  to  prefer  the  tender, 
modest,  shrinking  woman  to  the  hard,  bold,  self-reliant  one. 
Besides,  Rabbi  Ben  Azai  may  be  right  when  he  says,  'Go  down 
the  ladder  when  thou  marriest  a  wife;  go  up  when  thou  choosest 
a  friend." 

"Come,  Ned,  don't  misrepresent  or  caricature  the  charming 
women  who  to-day  as  never  before  are  demonstrating  their  ability 
to  stand  beside  men  as  their  equals  in  every  department  of  life. 
There  is  no  necessary  connection  between  self-reliance  and  hard- 
ness, boldness,  ^  and  coarseness.  You  would  not  admit  such  an 
inference  so  far  as  your  own  sex  is  concerned,  and  would  scout 
the  idea  that  a  gentleman,  in  order  to  be  refined,  high-strung, 
and  gentle,  would  have  to  forfeit  the  qualities  of  strength  and 
daring.  Nor  will  I  acknowledge  that  the  female  independence 
of  which  I  spoke  is  to  be  acquired  only  at  the  expense  of  the 
finer  traits  of  womanhood.  I  am  among  those  who  believe  that 
it  is  just  as  contemptible  for  a  woman  to  marry  with  a  mercenary 
motive  as  for  a  man  to  do  so,  and  I  insist  that  the  girls  who  earn 
their  own  living  will  be  less  likely  to  do  this  than  those  who  feel 
their  helplessness." 

"I  can  not  agree  with  you  in  this  opinion,"  replied  Mr.  Notion. 
"On  the  contrary,  it  would  seem  to  me  that  the  girls  who  had 
been  brought  into  rude  contact  with  the  world,  and  who  in  the 
fierce  struggle  for  a  living  had  been  taught  the  value  of  money, 
would  be  the  most  likely  to  esteem  wealth  as  the  chief  desider- 
atum in  marriage.  It  is  the  romantic,  sentimental  girls  who  lay 
least  stress  upon  the  pecuniary  phase  of  matrimony,  and  I  am 


INDfSTKl.VL    JMIASKS    OF    THE    QUESTION.  181 

sure  you  will  concede  that  the  flowers  of  sentiment  will  soon  fade 
and  die  in  the  heart  of  the  young  woman  who  is  daily  engaged 
in  the  scramble  for  bread.  But,  mind  you,  while  I  claim  that 
the  woman  who  competes  with  men  would  be  most  likely  to  want 
a  rich  husband,  I  am  also  of  the  opinion  that  she  would  be  least 
likely  to  get  him." 

"True,  Edward,  for  the  spoiled  darlings  of  fortune  do  not 
generally  look  for  wives  among  the  noble  girls  who  toil  for  an 
honorable  livelihood.  The  young  millionaires  of  the  country 
tire  more  accustomed  to  mate  with  the  wealthy  maidens  of  their 
own  exclusive  circle.  But,  to  change  the  subject,  I  wish  to 
remind  you  that  the  lady  clerk  is  a  distinct  improvement  in  every 
way  upon  her  male  predecessor.  I  have  talked  with  men  who 
employed  young  ladies  in  their  offices,  and  they  have  assured  me 
that  the  girls  Avere  incomparably  superior  to  the  young  men;  that 
they  were  neater  and  cleaner;  that  they  were  more  polite,  more 
obedient,  more  reliable,  more  accurate  and  skillful  in  their  work; 
that  they  had  no  bad  habits,  and  came  to  business  on  Monday 
mornings  in  good  condition  after  their  Sunday  rest,  and  not  jaded 
and  worn  by  a  day  of  dissipation,  as  is  so  frequently  the  case 
with  young  men ;  that  they  never  chewed  tobacco,  nor  smoked,  nor 
stole  out  two  or  three  times  a  day  to  get  a  drink  of  liquor;  and 
that  they  Avere  more  honest,  and  Avere  not  exposed  to  the  tempta- 
tions of  male  clerks,  such  as  gambling,  associating  with  fast 
women,  etc." 

' '  I  suppose  they  informed  you  also, ' '  remarked  Mr.  Notion, 
"that  the  girls  Avorked  for  one-half  the  salary  formerly  paid 
the  men." 

' '  Yes,  Edward,  but  they  did  not  need  large  salaries,  as  their 
habits  were  inexpensive,  and  in  most  cases  they  lived  with  their 
parents. ' ' 

"I  am  glad  to  ha\Te  you  remind  me  of  that  feature  of  the  case, 
Matilda,  for  I  had  Avell-nigh  overlooked  it.  The  fact  is  that 
multitudes  of  young  women  do  the  work  formerly  done  by  men, 
not  because  of  necessity,  but  simply  to  earn  spending  or  pin 
money.  As  you  said  in  our  last  talk,  they  Avant  to  buy  the 
innumerable  little  things  which  are  required  to  make  a  woman 
happy.  They  want  to  attend  the  theater,  and,  as  the  young  men 
can  not  afford  to  take  them  there  as  they  used  to  in  former  days, 
they  either  have  to  pay  their  own  way  or  stay  at  home.  They 
desire  to  dress  expensiATely,  and  haAre  a  liking  for  candy,  ice- 


182  DoMl.sTir    IH'F.I.s. 

cream  soda,  etc.,  which  is  just  us  fully  developed  an  appetite  as 
that  which  demands  liquor  or  tobacco.  They  are  fond  of  costly 
pel-fumes  and  toilet  articles.  Many  girls,  in  addition  to  these 
tastes,  are  literary  and  artistic,  and  earnestly  desire  books, 
pictures,  statuary,  bric-a-brac,  etc.  In  order  to  gratify  these 
tastes  they  accept  any  remuneration  which  is  offered,  and  the 
result  is  that  the  standard  of  compensation  is  lowered.  In  fact, 
Helen  Campbell,  and  other  women  who  have  given  these  matters 
much  study,  express  the  opinion  that  women's  wages  are  tending 
downward  rather  than  upward.  Thus  you  see  men  are,  being 
exposed  to  the  c;>mpetition  of  cheap  female  labor,  and  their  wages 
are  being  reduced.  Such  competition  has  its  inevitable  efiects, 
whether  it  be  that  of  Chinese,  Japanese,  imported  European 
laborers,  or  of  charming  American  girls  who  wish  to  procure  pin 
money,  and  are  willing  to  work  for  almost  any  compensation. 
These  girls  neither  know  nor  care  what  the  standard  of  subsistence 
is,  or  what  their  services  are  really  worth;  nor  do  they  give  a 
thought  to  the  grave  industrial  and  social  evils  which  result  from 
their  apparently  harmless  efforts  to  get  a  little  spending  money. 
Most  of  the  men  are  just  as  short-sighted,  and  each  fond  father 
exerts  himself  to  the  utmost  to  get  his  bright  daughter  a  position. 
Of  course  the  young  ladies  who  become  wage-earners  as  soon  as 
they  have  finished  their  education,  have  neither  the  time,  strength, 
nor  inclination  to  do  housework,  and  in  most  cases  they  heartily 
dislike  it,  term  it  drudgery,  slavery,  etc.,  and  pride  themselves 
upon  their  ignorance  of  it.  In  their  opinion  such  degrading  and 
menial  labor  will  do  well  enough  tor  Chinamen  or  Japanese,  or  for 
ignorant  foreign  girls,  but  is  wholly  unsuited  for  American  ladies, 
who  wear  bloomers,  ride  the  bicycle,  swim,  play  lawn-tennis,  and 
talk  about  literature,  science,  and  philosophy." 

"You.  speak   with   unusual  bitterness,    Kdward,  and   vet   von 
have  had  no  personal  experience  in  these  matters." 

"Xo,  indeed,  my  dear,  and  I  am  truly  thankful  for  it.  But 
I  can't  help  seeing  the  drift  of  things,  and  deploring  it.  AVhv, 
if  they  go  on  much  farther  in  the  same  direction,  1  predict  that  the 
men  will  have  to  organ i/.e  for  the  express  purpose  of  protecting 
themselves  against  female  cheap  labor,  in  much  the  same  wav  as 
thev  have  done  in  the  past  against  the  degrading  competition  of 
the  Chinaman  and  the  imported  European!"' 

"But    in    the    ca-;1-    you    mention,''    suggested    Mrs.    Notion, 
"legislation  was  reipired  to  supplement  the  labor  unions,  and  by 


INDUSTRIAL    PIIAsKs    OF    TI1K    gr  KsTION.  183 

u  parity  of  reasoning,  it  would  be  just  as  necessary  for  the  settle- 
ment of  this  problem." 

"True,  Matilda,  but  I  have  little  hope  that  such  legislation 
can  be  obtained,  in  the  event  of  women  securing  the  ballot.  This 
phu.se  of  the  subject,  however,  belongs  to  a  separate  discussion." 

"But  why  didn't  girls  and  women  come  forward  in  the  realm 
of  industry  in  the  past  as  well  as  in  the  present?  "  asked  Mrs. 
Notion. 

"Simply  because  they  felt  too  dependent,"  replied  Mr.  Notion. 
"They  had  not  become  imbued  with  the  idea  of  the  equality  of 
the  sexes.  But,  as  time  passed,  they  gradually  grew  to  believe,  in 
large  numbers  of  instances,  that  they  were  the  peers  of  men  in 
every  way.  As  this  conviction  deepened,  they  longed  more  and 
more  eagerly  to  come  boldly  out  into  the  industrial  arena  and 
challenge  man  to  mortal  combat.  For  a  while,  however,  public 
opinion  kept  them  back,  but  every  now  and  then  some  unusually 
intrepid  woman  would  press  forward,  and  others  would  quickly 
follow  her.  It  was  like  the  wearing  of  bloomers.  When  women 
learned  to  ride  the  bicycle,  they  discovered  that  the  bifurcated 
garment  was  absolutely  indispensable  to  their  safety  and  comfort 
on  the  wheel.  In  every  locality  the  lady  bicyclists  were  anxious 
to  don  these  articles  of  wearing  apparel,  but  they  hesitated,  for 
each  felt  timid  about  attracting  the  notice  and  braving  the  ridicule 
of  the  public.  Finally,  a  few  bold  women  took  the  initiative,  and 
multitudes  immediately  imitated  their  example." 

"Then,  Edward,  you  account  for  the  great  industrial  move- 
ment of  women  in  this  country  during  the  past  quarter  of  a 
century,  by  ascribing  it  to  their  growing  consciousness  of  equality 
with  men." 

"I  do,  to  a  very  large  extent. ' ' 

"Yes,"  urged  Mrs.  Notion,  "but  what  was  it  that  gave  rise 
to  this  feeling  of  equality  and  independence?  " 

"Its  causes,  of  coui-se,  are  numerous  and  complex,"  replied 
Mr.  Notion.  "  I  should  say  that  the  very  atmosphere  of  America 
would  have  a  tendency  in  that  direction.  In  a  new  country,  with 
popular  institutions  based  on  the  idea  of  liberty,  with  an  unre- 
stricted association  of  the  sexes  perhaps  unparalleled  in  the  history 
of  the  world,  with  a  literature  saturated  with  principle's  of  inde- 
pendence and  equality — heredity  and  environment  would  combine 
to  embue  the  women  as  well  as  the  men  with  a  conviction  of  their 
own  value  and  importance.  All  these  things  would  naturally 


184  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

have  a  potent  influence  in  the  direction  indicated;  but  to  my 
mind  the  principal  factor  in  this  movement  has  been  the  liberal 
education  of  girls.  The  time  was  when  the  sexes  were  kept  apart 
in  childhood,  and  girls  were  rarely  afforded  the  opportunity  of 
acquiring  a  liberal  education,  but  gradually  the  facilities  for 
female  education  were  increased,  until  at  last  girls  and  boys  were 
placed  upon  exactly  the  same  scholastic  footing.  For  many  yea  is 
past  they  have  been  taught,  as  a  rule,  in  the  same  schools  and 
colleges.  Of  course  there  are  numerous  exceptions,  which  we 
may  refer  to  in  some  subsequent  conversation,  but  the  «reat 
majority  of  cases  have  been  and  are  as  I  state.  The  girls  have 
discovered  that  they  can  learn  everything  that  the  boys  can,  and, 
what  is  more,  that  they  can  generally  outstrip  them  in  the  race 
for  knowledge.  We  all  know  that  the  best  pupils  in  all  our 
public  schools  are  mostly  girls." 

"Stop  right  there,  Edward,  until  I  ask  you  if  that  is  not 
equivalent  to  an  admission  on  your  part  that  the  female  intellect 
is  stronger  than  the  male  ?  ' ' 

' '  Not  at  all,  my  dear.  It  simply  shows  that  girls  are  more 
studious  than  boys,  and  learn  their  lessons  better  for  the  purposes 
of  recitation.  You  know  as  well  as  I  do  that  the  mere  ability  to 
memorize  lessons,  and  to  pass  examinations  satisfactorily,  does 
not  constitute  talent,  or  indicate  great  intellectual  vigor.  AVe 
are  both  familiar  with  instances  of  men  and  women  who  have 
attained  high  honors  in  school  and  college,  and  yet  have  relapsed 
into  hopeless  mediocrity  when  they  graduated  from  the  curriculum 
of  the  university  into  the  greater  one  of  the  world.  No,  Matilda, 
the  boy  is  so  active,  restless,  and  fond  of  outdoor  sports,  that  the 
study  of  abstract  problems,  having  no  immediate  or  perceptible 
application  to  the  every-day  affairs  of  life,  is  irksome  to  him,  and 
he  gets  through  his  school  exercises  with  as  little  effort  as  possible. 
He  is  building  up  his  physical  nature,  and  it  takes  him  longer  to 
do  it  than  it  does  the  girl,  who  is  more  mature  and  further 
advanced  in  every  way  than  he.  As  a  result  of  these  differences 
in  temperament  and  condition,  she  studies  while  he  sprints, 
swims,  rows,  or  rides,  and,  her  mental  powers  being  more  devel- 
oped than  his  are  at  the  same  age,  she  has  for  the  time  being  a 
great  advantage.  But  when  he  attains  a  corresponding  maturity, 
and  realizes  the  practical  adaptation  of  the  principles  taught  in 
the  college  to  the  stubborn  problems  of  life,  he  will  grasp  the  real 
meaning  of  lessons  once  partially  ignored,  far  more  powerfully 
and  comprehensively  than  his  erstwhile  female  schoolmate." 


INDUSTRIAL    PHASES   OF    THE   QUESTION.  185 

"  I  see  you  are  incorrigible,  Edward,  in  your  pride  of  sex. 
But  proceed." 

' '  Just  one  more  thought,  Matilda,  for  I  see  the  hour  is  late. 
Xot  only  are  the  American  girls  brighter  students  than  the 
American  boys,  but  for  a  generation  past  the  proportion  of  well- 
educated  girls  in  this  country  has  far  exceeded  that  of  boys. 
I  refer  now  to  the  graduates  of  common  schools  and  high  schools. 
As  yet  the  male  graduates  of  colleges  and  universities  are  vastly  in 
the  majority,  but  you  have  doubtless  noticed  that,  though  the  two 
sexes  are  equally  represented  in  the  lowest  grades,  the  girls  more 
and  more  preponderate  as  you  ascend  in  the  scholastic  scale,  and 
long  before  the  grammar  school  is  reached,  the  boys  are  in  a 
hopeless  minority.  As  a  result,  the  women  of  America  are  better 
educated  on  an  average  than  are  the  men.  There  are  more 
highly  educated  men  than  women,  but  the  fairly  well  educated 
and  informed  women  of  our  laud  far  outnumber  the  corresponding 
class  of  men. ' ' 

"If  I  remember  aright,"  said  Mrs.  Notion,  "Bryce  recog- 
nized this  fact  in  his  'American  Commonwealth,'  although  he 
probably  had  not  discovered  the  reason. ' ' 

"To  this  fact,  Matilda,  I  very  largely  attribute  the  great 
movement  of  women,  not  only  in  the  trades  and  arts,  but  in  the 
learned  professions..  Of  these  latter,  however,  we  had  better 
reserve  all  discussion  until  our  next  chat. ' ' 


Mr.  and  Mrs.  Notion  Discuss  the  Higher  Educa- 
tion of  Women. 

"Woman,  sister!  there  are  some  things  which  you  do  not  execute  as 
well  as  your  brother,  man;  nor  ever  will.  Pardon  me,  if  I  doubt 
whether  you  vyilv  ever  produce  a  great  poet  from  your  choir,  or  a  great 
philosopher,  or  a  great  scholar. " — Dr  <>//iin-f//. 

"  Woman's  profession  demands  such  very  diverse  training  from  the 
professions  of  the  other  sex,  that  access  to  universities  for  men  does 
not  meet  her  most  sacred  necessities.  A  university  education  for  women 
should  be  as  diverse  from  that  of  man's  as  are  her  duties  and  responsi- 
bilities."—  Catherine  K.  Beecher. 

"You  have  been  doing  most  of  the  talking  lately,"  said  Mrs. 
Notion  to  her  husband,  "and  I  have  really  not  had  an  oppor- 
tunity to  express  my  views  us  fully  as  I  could  wish." 

Mr.  Notion  bowed  to  his  wife  in  the  most  deferential  manner, 
and  said:  "I  shall  be  only  too  happy  to  listen  to  all  that  you 
have  to  say,  Matilda,  for  i  have  learned  that  you  have  always 
something  of  interest  to  communicate  when  you  take  the  floor,  if 
von  will  pardon  me  for  putting  it  in  a  parliamentary  wav." 

"While  you  have  been  saying  so  much,"  continued  Mrs. 
Notion,  "about  women  wage-workers,  and  the  terrible  damage 
they  were  doing  to  the  community  in  many  ways,  I  have  been 
thinking  of  the  wonderful  manner  in  which  educational  opportuni- 
ties have  presented  themselves  for  girls  in  our  generation,  and  of 
how  grandly  American  women  have  improved  them,  and  titled 
themselves  for  brilliant  and  successful  professional  careers." 

"That  is  a  phase  of  the  subject,  Matilda,  which  I  have  not 
investigated  as  thoroughly  as  1  should  have  done.  I  know  that 
vou  have,  and.  as  I  am  deeply  interested  in  everything  that 
relates  to  women,  I  shall  he  both  pleased  and  instructed  by  what 
you  have  to  say." 

"  Let  me  preface  what  1  state,  Edward,  by  reminding  you  that 
in  all  ages  women  have  proved  themselves  capable  of  the  most 
arduous  intellectual  labors  and  the  most  brilliant  intellectual 

(18G) 


HIGHER    EDUCATION    OF    WOMEN.  187 

attainments.  Nor  have  they  ever  failed  to  realize  the  transcendent 
importance  of  mental  culture.  Centuries  since  Elena  Lucre/hi 
Coronaro,  a  woman  of  Italy,  received  a  doctor's  degree  at  the 
University  of  Padua,  and  became  noted  as  a  poet,  musician, 
mathematician,  linguist,  and  astronomer.  Novela  d' Andrea 
occasionally  lectured  for  her  father,  who  occupied  the  position  of 
professor  of  law  in  the  University  of  Bologna.  As  far  hack  as 
1239,  Bettisia  Gozzidina,  LL.D.,  held  a  law  professor-ship  in  a 
great  university,  and  in  the  fourteenth  century  Catalina  and 
Novella  Calderini  lectured  on  law.  Since  that  time  there  has 
been  no  century  which  has  not  been  distinguished  by  talented  and 
scholarly  European  women.  In  fact,  nearly  every  century  of  oui 
era  has  been  marked  by  some  women  of  extraordinary  ability  and 
learning.  In  the  fourth  century  Paula,  Marcella,  Melania,  and 
Eustochium  surpassed  all  other  Roman  ladies  in  endowments  of 
the  mind.  In  the  fifth  century,  Elpis,  wife  of  Boetius,  distin- 
guished for  her  beauty,  wit,  and  learning,  composed  hymns 
adopted  in  the  Latin  liturgy.  In  the  sixth,  Radegundes,  queen 
of  France,  was  a  scholar,  and  read  Latin  and  Greek.  In  the 
seventh,  Gertrude  knew  all  the  Scriptures  by  heart,  and  translated 
them  into  Greek,  and  Hilda,  a  Northumberland  abbess,  was  so 
highly  esteemed  in  the  church  that  she  was  repeatedly  called  to 
take  part  in  the  councils  of  the  bishops.  In  the  eighth,  Lioba 
was  as  learned  as  she  was  beautiful. ' ' 

' '  Excuse  me,  Matilda,  but,  as  you  put  it,  the  extent  of  her 
learning  would  depend  upon  the  degree  of  her  beauty,  and  you 
have  not  stated  that  she  was  really  beautiful." 

"Fie,  fie,  Edward,  none  of  your  verbal  quibbles!  You  well 
know  what  I  mean.  She  was  extremely  handsome  and  very 
learned,  indeed.  I  hope  that  is  plain  enough  to  suit  you.  In 
the  ninth  century,  Ebba,  abbess  of  the  convent  of  Coldingham 
in  Ireland,  was  celebrated  for  her  ability  and  scholarship.  In 
the  tenth,  Adelaide,  empress  of  Germany,  was  an  erudite  woman, 
who  ably  governed  the  empire  after  the  death  of  her  son.  In  the 
eleventh,  Margaret,  queen  of  Scotland,  was  a  woman  of  rare 
genius,  and  ruled  her  people  with  justice  and  wisdom;  Rodhia,  of 
Cordova,  a  Moorish  Spaniard,  was  the  author  of  several  volumes 
on  rhetoric;  and  Sophia,  of  Hispali,  was  noted  for  her  oratory 
and  poetry.  In  the  twelth,  Hildegardis,  of  Germany,  wrote 
several  books  of  scientific  prophecy,  numerous  letters  to  kings  and 
popes,  a  poem  on  medicine,  and  a  book  of  Latin  poems.  In  the 


188  DOMKSTIC  j>n:i>. 

thirteenth,  Isabella,  daughter  of  Louis  the  Light  h,  of  France, 
attained  a  wide  celebrity  for  her  beauty,  piety,  and  learning. 
She  was  remarkably  proficient  in  Latin.  In  the  fourteenth, 
Catherine  of  Sienna  wrote  books  of  letters,  poems,  and  religious 
dissertations.  In  the  fifteenth,  Catherine,  of  Bologna,  was  a 
famous  miniature  painter,  and  writer  of  abstruse  treatises.  In 
the  sixteenth,  Mary,  queen  of  England,  was  extremely  learned, 
and  a  strong  advocate  of  woman's  rights.  She  made  Lady 
Berkeley  a  justice  of  the  peace  in  Gloucestershire,  and  Lady 
Rous,  a  judge  for  Suffolk." 

"I  do  not  wish  to  interrupt  you,"  said  Mr.  Notion,  "but  I 
can  not  resist  the  inclination  to  suggest  that  Mary  did  not  pay 
much  regard  to  the  rights  of  the  learned  and  brilliant  Lady 
Jane  Grey.'"* 

"Oh,  we  referred  sufficiently  to  that  phase  of  her  career  in 
one  of  our  previous  talks,  Edward,  and  of  course  the  conduct  of 
Mary  in  that  regard  can  not  be  justified.  But,  to  proceed,  her 
sister  Elizabeth,  afterwards  queen,  knew  Latin,  Greek,  and 
French  at  seventeen  years  of  age,  and  studied  philosophy,  rhet- 
oric, history,  divinity,  poetry,  and  music.  Elizabeth's  rival  and 
final  victim,  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  Theresa  of  Spain,  and  Mary 
of  Hungary,  were  also  gifted  and  cultured  women  of  the  same 
century.  In  the  seventeenth,  Juliana  Morella  publicly  main- 
tained a  thesis  in  philosophy,  and  was  profoundly  skilled  in 
divinity,  music,  jurisprudence,  and  philology.  Lucre/.ia  Mari- 
nelli  was  a  sculptor,  historian,  musician,  and  accomplished  litter- 
ateur. Mademoiselle  de  Gournay,  the  friend  of  Montaigne, 
was  an  author  of  distinction,  and  Margaret,  queen  of  Navarre, 
first  wife  of  Henry  the  Fourth  of  France,  was  also  a  woman  of 
rare  literary  attainments.  In  the  last  century  women  of  genius 
and  learning  were  so  numerous  that  I  can  only  stop  to  mention  a 
few  of  them.  Laura  Bassi  wrote  and  spoke  Latin  with  fluency, 
and  was  professor  in  the  University  of  Bologna.  Elizabeth 
Carter  was  an  eminent  Greek  scholar.  Hannah  More,  earned 
8150,000  by  her  literary  productions.  Madame  de  Stael  was 
noted  as  a  millionaire,  politician,  conversationalist,  and  a.;thor, 
and  Mademoiselle  Le/ardiere  wrote  a  work  considered  by  (Jui/.ot 
to  l>e  the  most  instructive  then  extant  on  the  subject  of  Roman 
law.  Six  other  celebrated  scientific,  women  of  the  same  century 
were  Marquise  d;i  Chatelet,  Maria  Agnesi,  Nicole  Ueine  Lepante, 
Caroline  Ilersrhel,  Sophie  ( lermain,  and  Miss  .Mary  Somerville. 


IirCIIKU    JODUCATION    OK    WOMEN.  189 

Mary  Wollstonecroft  late  in  the  century  wrote  a  powerful  appeal 
for  the  recognition  ot  the  intellectual  needs  and  capacities  of 
women,  but  it  was  as  seed  sown  before  the  due  time.  Of  course 
you  are  familiar  with  the  sparkling,  graceful  letters  of  Lady 
Mary  Wortley  Montagu,  and  have  enjoyed  the  beautiful  senti- 
ments of  Mrs.  Henmns.  In  fact,  Edward,  when  I  come  to  the 
latter  part  of  the  world's  history,  the  number  of  women  who  have 
distinguished  themselves  in  various  ways  is  so  great  that  I  am 
embarrassed,  and  find  myself  unable  to  use  the  varied  and  exten- 
sive material  at  my  command,  without  taking  up  too  much  of 
your  time,  and,  possibly,  trespassing  upon  your  patience.  Mrs. 
Sarah  J.  Hale,  in  her  work  published  in  1854,  gave  a  list  of 
125  living  women  of  distinction,  and  to-day  the  number  would 
run  into  the  thousands. ' ' 

"I  assure  you,  Matilda,  that  I  am  much  interested,  as  well  as 
instructed,  by  what  you  tell  me,  for  I  never  tire  of  hearing  of 
good  and  great  women.  I  am  such  a  warm  admirer  of  your 
sex  that  nothing  pleases  me  more  than  the  record  of  woman's 
success." 

' '  Then  let  me  refer  you,  Edward,  to  a  few  works,  some  written 
by  men,  which  will  show  you  what  we  have  accomplished.  First 
let  me  mention  the  works  of  Sarah  K.  Bolton,  entitled  respect- 
ively, 'Girls  Who  Became  Famous,'  'Famous  Leaders  among 
Women,'  and  'Representative  Types  of  Women.'  'The  Child 
Life  and  Girlhood  of  Remarkable  Women,'  by  W.  H.  D.  Adams, 
is  a  book  which  will  interest  you,  and  you  will  find  well  worth 
the  reading  a  work  by  James  Parton,  entitled  'Noted  Women  of 
Europe  and  America.'  Other  excellent  works  on  female  biog- 
raphy are:  'Some  Eminent  AVomen  of  Our  Times,'  by  Mrs. 
Henry  Fawcett;  'World  Famous  Women,'  by  Frank  B.  Good- 
rich; 'Cyclopedia  of  Female  Biography/  by  II.  G.  Adams: 
'  Ladies  of  the  Covenant, '  by  Rev.  James  Anderson ;  and  '  Our 
Famous  Women,'  by  twenty  Avell-known  lady  authors.  '  Women 
on  the  American  Frontier,'  by  William  W.  Fowler,  and 
'Women  of  the  War,'  by  Frank  Moore,  will  give  you  a  good 
idea  of  the  heroic  capabilities  and  achievements  of  the  members 
of  the  gentle  sex,  as  you  delight  to  term  us." 

"These  books  are  not  entirely  unfamiliar  to  me,"  said  Mr. 
Notion,  "but  some  of  them,  I  confess,  I  have  never  had  the 
pleasure  of  reading,  and  I  shall  be  glad  to  do  so  at  the  earliest 
opportunity. ' ' 


i,     )  DOMKSTIC    IH'KI.S. 

"And  now,"  remarked  Mrs.  Notion,  "I  want  to  speak  briclly 
on  the  subject  of  woman's  education,  before  saying  what  I  have 
in  mind  about  the  manner  in  which  we  have  distinguished  our- 
selves in  the  learned  professions.  Miss  Hetty  Higginson,  of 
Salem,  Massachusetts,  was  famous  as  an  instructor  as  far  back  as 
1782.  In  1783  Miss  Lucinda  Foote,  when  only  twelve  years  of 
age,  received  a  certificate  from  Ezra  Stiles,  president  of  Yale 
College,  to  the  effect  that  she  had  made  commendable  progres>  in 
Latin,  and  but  for  her  sex  was  fully  qualified  to  be  received  into 
the  Freshman  class.  She  afterwards  pursued  a  full  course  of 
studies,  with  Hebrew  added,  under  that  gentleman,  subsequent  to 
which  she  married,  and  became  the  mother  of  ten  children." 

"Good  former!"  exclaimed  Mr.  Notion.  "She  put  her 
erudition  to  a  good  use,  for,  as  I  have  said  before,  I  am  not 
among  those  who  think  that  wives  and  mothers  have  no  use  for 
higher  learning." 

' '  And  yet,  Edward,  the  men  generally  have  not  been  of  your 
opinion,  for  it  was  not  until  187!)  that  the  Harvard  Annex  for 
women  was  founded,  and  Barnard  College,  a  female  institution 
connected  with  the  Columbia  College,  was  organixcd  as  late  as 
1889.  Vassar  began  its  grand  Avork  of  female  emancipation 
from  the  bonds  of  ignorance  in  1<S<>.~>,  with  oo()  young  women. 
Among  its  graduates  is  Maria  Mitchell,  the  well-known  astron- 
omer, and  many  other  illustrious  women.  "NVellesley  College, 
one  of  the  first  co-educational  institutions  in  the  country,  was 
founded  in  1875.  Cornell  University,  founded  in  1868,  admitted 
women  to  an  equality  with  men  in  1872.  Bryn  Mawr,  a  JVnn- 
sylvania  college  for  women,  was  organized  in  1885.  Between 
1870  and  1885  girls  were  admitted  to  some  of  the  western  col- 
leges, and  I  am  glad  to  say  in  this  connection  that  the  University 
of  California  was  one  of  the  first  to  extend  us  recognition. 
It  opened  in  1869,  and  admitted  women  the  following  year. 
The  western  colleges  which  opened  before  1861  all  became 
co-educational  between  LS61  and  1871,  and  all  which  were 
founded  since  1871,  began  as  co-educational  institutions.  Out 
of  212  western  colleges,  165  are  co-educational,  and  the  2f> 
which  are  devoted  to  the  education  of  men  exclusively,  are  all 
sectarian,  and  are  maintained  by  the  Roman  Catholic,  Lutheran, 
Episcopal,  and  Presbyterian  Churches." 

"This  certainly  constitutes  a  very  creditable  and  gratifying 
showing  for  the  west,  Matilda,  and  one  of  which  1  am  proud; 


HIGHER    EDUCATION    OF    WOMEN.  191 

but  how  about  the  institutions  of  learning  in  the  eastern  states?" 
"I  am  sorry  to  say,"  answered  Mrs.  Notion,  "that  in  that 
section  of  the  country  the  prejudices  of  your  sex  have  been  harder 
to  overcome,  and  the  recognition  of  women  by  colleges  and  uni- 
versities has  not  been  as  cordial  and  complete  as  in  the  west;  but 
rapid  progress  has  been  made  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and 
to-day  the  ambitious,  intellectual  girl  has  nearly  as  good  an 
opportunity  to  become  educated  as  the  boy  of  corresponding 
mental  faculties." 

' '  Of  course,  Matilda,  much  allowance  must  be  made  for  the 
reluctance  with  which  conservative  men  relinquish  old  habits  of 
thought,  and  accept  such  startling  innovations  as  those  involved 
in  co-education.  The  arguments  against  the  admission  of  women 
to  the  higher  institutions  of  learning  were  about  as  follows:  That 
the  mental  inferiority  of  women  to  men  would  be  sure  to  lower 
the  scholastic  standard  of  the  colleges;  that  women  by  reason  of 
their  physical  frailty  can  not  endure  the  strain  of  persistent 
mental  effort  without  impairing  their  health;  that  their  presence 
in  collegiate  institutions  will  tend  to  deteriorate  both  sexes, 
making  the  men  effeminate,  and  the  women  masculine;  that  the 
association  of  young  men  and  women  will  unduly  develop  the 
emotional  nature  of  the  students,  distract  their  minds  from  study, 
and  possibly  give  occasion  for  scandal;  that  the  intimacies  thus 
formed  will  lead  to  premature  marriages;  that  young  men  dis- 
approve of  the  higher  education  of  women,  and  dislike  to  com- 
pete with  them,  and  hence,  if  the  latter  are  admitted  to  colleges, 
will  seek  in  those  limited  to  their  own  sex  the  social  life  which 
can  not  be  found  in  a  co-educational  institution;  that  a  collegiate 
education  not  only  does  not  prepare  a  woman  for  the  domestic 
relations  and  duties  for  which  she  is  designed,  but  actually  unfits 
her  for  them ;  that  colleges  were  originally  intended  for  men  only, 
and  the  wills  of  their  founders  and  benefactors  will  be  violated 
by  the  admission  of  women;  that,  whatever  the  real  mental 
capacity  and  physical  ability  of  women,  so  fixed  is  the  world's 
conviction  of  their  inferiority,  that  colleges  admitting  them  will 
inevitably  forfeit  the  world's  confidence  and  respect.  I  have 
stated  these,  Matilda,  in  the  order  and  in  almost  the  exact  w*ords 
that  May  Wright  Sewell  gives  them  in  that  excellent  book, 
called  'Woman's  Work  in  America,'  ' 

"Isn't  it  really  surprising,  Edward,  that  men  could  ever  have 
so  stultified  themselves  as  to  use  such  foolish  and  frivolous 
arguments  ? ' ' 


192  DOMESTIC    DUKI>S. 

"Some  of  them,"  replied  Mr.  Notion,  "were  undoubtedly 
ill-founded,  and  the  results  have  proved  it,  but  I  really  think 
that  several  are  entitled  to  considerable  weight.  It  is  too  soon 
yet  to  say  that  the  standard  of  colleges  will  not  be  lowered  by 
the  admission  of  women.  The  proportion  of  men  to  women 
in  nearly  all  the  co-educational  colleges  of  which  I  have  any 
knowledge  is  still  too  large  to  permit  such  a  result  to  appear. 
You  know  my  views  as  to  the  relative  mental  strength  of  the 
sexes.  I  think  men  on  the  average  are  superior  in  intellectual 
force  to  women;  but  between  the  bright  young  women  and 
talented  young  men  who  go  to  our  institutions  of  learning,  the 
difference  in  mentality  is  probably  not  great  enough  to  bring 
about  any  lowering  of  college  stain  Ian  Is.  I  do  think,  however, 
that  girls  are  less  able  physically  to  bear  the  strain  of  long- 
continued  and  difficult  study  than  are  boys,  and  I  know  of  quite 
a  number  of  cases  where  too  persistent  mental  application  on  the 
part  of  young  women  has  permanently  impaired  their  health." 

"And  I  know  of  many  instances,"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Notion, 
"where  young  men  have  sickened  and  died  in  the  first  year  or 
two  of  their  collegiate  course,  but  I  do  not  think  that  I  would  be 
justified  in  drawing  the  conclusion  from  such  exceptional  cases 
that  young  men  are  too  frail  in  body  to  undergo  the  ordeal  of 
acquiring  a  university  education." 

"No,  Matilda,  you  would  not,  because  the  proportion  of  male 
university  students  who  are  thus  cut  off  is  much  smaller  than 
that  of  female  students.  But,  leaving  that  aside,  I  do  not 
believe  that  the  association  together  of  men  and  women  in  col- 
leges will  have  any  of  the  bad  effects  upon  their  morals  and 
manners  which  some  thoughtful  persons  apprehend,  or  that  many 
premature  marriages  will  result,  or  that  co-educational  colleges 
will  become  unpopular  with  young  men.  But  I  am  afraid  that 
in  the  majority  of  instances  the  higher  education  has  had  a 
tendency  to  make  household  duties  distasteful  to  women  gradu- 
ates, and  to  tempt  them  into  professional  pursuits." 

"I  thought,  Edward,  that  you  were  in  favor  of  extending  to 
women  every  possible  educational  facility,  and  of  giving  them 
the  same  opportunities  in  this  direction  which  men  enjoy." 

"So  I  am,  Matilda,  and  I  don't  think  there  is  any  necessary 
relation  of  cause  and  effect  between  great  mental  attainments  and 
an  aversion  to  domestic  duties.  In  fact,  I  believe,  if  the  course 
of  study  pursued  by  women  were  arranged  with  express  reference 


HIGHER    EDUCATION    OF    WOMEN. 

to  their  future  as  wives  and  mothers,  that  no  such  consequences 
would  ensue.  The  trouble  is  that  in  great  co-educational  insti- 
tutions the  curriculum  is  necessarily  designed  to  a  large  extent 
for  those  who  intend  to  fit  themselves  for  a  professional  career. 
If  women  were  to  attend  only  female  colleges  where  everything 
was  adapted  to  the  idea  that  as  a  rule  the  graduates  would  marry 
and  rear  families,  this  objection  would  be  entirely  obviated. 
When  it  comes  to  be  generally  understood  that  the  acquisition  of 
knowledge  by  women  is  not  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  them  to 
earn  money,  but  rather  to  help  them  to  reach  their  highest  possi- 
bilities as  wives  and  mothers,  the  course  of  study  at  female 
colleges  will  naturally  adjust  itself  to  this  point  of  view." 

"You  forget,  Edward,  that  there  are  several  distinct  courses 
of  study  at  all  our  great  institutions  of  learning,  and  that  it  is 
possible  for  the  student  by  judicious  selection  to  pursue  her 
investigations  in  almost  any  direction  desired,  and  to  familiarize 
herself  with  almost  any  branch  of  knowledge.  I  object  also  to 
your  assumption  that  girls  have  no  right  to  acquire  an  education 
from  the  general  standpoint  of  humanity  at  large,  but  that  they 
should  be  taught  always  and  everywhere  with  special  reference  to 
the  fact  that  they  are  females.  No  one  would  be  quicker  than 
yourself  to  resent  as  impertinent  any  suggestion  that  men  should 
be  trained  and  developed  with  the  sole  object  of  adapting  them 
to  the  proper  discharge  of  their  functions  as  husbands  and 
fathers." 

' '  I  think  that  their  education  in  that  direction  is  very  much 
neglected,  Matilda,  and  the  only  reason  why  I  should  make  any 
such  distinction  between  the  underlying  purposes  of  male  and 
female  education,  is  because  the  men  are  to  be  the  bread-winners, 
and  to  devote  most  of  their  energies  to  affairs  external  to  the 
home,  so  that  women  may  be  unhampered  and  uninterrupted  in 
their  domestic  duties  by  the  necessity  of  aiding  in  the  financial 
support  of  the  family." 

' '  Let  me  quote, ' '  said  Mrs.  Notion,  ' '  some  of  the  wise  words 
of  James  B.  Angell,  president  of  the  University  of  Michigan. 
In  1884  that  gentleman  wrote:  'Women  were  admitted  here 
under  the  pressure  of  public  sentiment,  against  the  wishes  of 
most  of  the  professors;  but  I  think  no  professor  now  regrets  it, 
or  would  favor  their  exclusion.  The  way  had  been  well  pre- 
pared. Denominational  colleges  had  for  years  admitted  women; 
and  in  the  high  schools,  Avhich  are  all  preparatory  schools,  it  was 
13 


194  DOMESTIC  i>n:i.s. 

i 

the  universal  custom  to  teach  both  sexes.  Most  of  the  evils 
feared  by  those  who  opposed  the  admission  of  women,  have  not 
been  encountered.  We  made  no  solitary  modification  of  our 
rules  or  requirements.  The  women  did  not  become  hoidenisli; 
they  did  not  fail  in  their  studies;  they  did  not  break  down  in 
health;  they  have  graduated  in  all  departments;  they  have  not 
been  inferior  in  scholarship  to  the  men ;  the  careers  of  our  women 
graduates  have  been  on  the  whole  very  satisfactory.  They  are 
teachers  in  many  of  our  best  high  schools;  six  or  seven  are  in  the 
Wellesley  College  faculty.'  I  would  add  to  this,  Edward,  the 
statement  that  in  1890,  750  women  were  studying  in  the  co- 
educational institutions  of  the  south,  and  in  all  these  colleges 
the  testimony  jn  favor  of  co-education  is  pronounced  and 
emphatic.  I  would  also  remind  you  that,  in  the  nature  of  tilings, 
a  very  small  proportion  of  our  girls  will  ever  reach  colleges,  and 
that,  even  if  they  were  to  adopt  professional  careers  and  decline 
matrimony,  there  would  be  plenty  of  marriageable  material  left." 
"I  do  not  look  at  the  matter  in  that  way,  my  dear.  JSO 
greater  misfortune  could  happen  in  this  or  any  other  country 
than  to  have  the  most  talented,  accomplished,  and  highly  gifted 
women  excluded  from  domestic  life.  We  need  just  that  kind  of 
women  in  the  homes  of  the  land.  As  wives  and  mothers  they 
could  establish  high  ideals,  and  do  much  to  ennoble  and  exalt 
womanhood  in  its  loftiest  and  truest  sphere,  the  home.  And  I 
am  glad  to  know  that  the  great  stream  of  tendency  to  minify  {In- 
differences between  the  sexes,  which  manifested  itself  about  !*(>(>, 
and  which  has  flowed  on  so  steadily  and  powerfully  ever  since,  is 
being  strongly  opposed  by  large  numbers  of  the  best  and  most 
sagacious  women  in  the  world.  Let  me  refer  you  in  this  connec- 
tion to  an  article  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  five  or  six  years 
ago,  signed  by  the  Dowager  Lady  Stanly,  of  Alderley,  the 
Duchess  of  St.  Albans,  Mrs.  Goschen,  Mrs.  JIuxley,  Mrs.  Alma 
Tadema,  Mrs.  Max  Miiller,  and  many  other  ladies  of  distinction. 
It  concludes  with  the  following  significant  words:  '  We  are  con- 
vinced that  the  pursuit  of  a  mere  outward  equality  with  men,  is 
for  women  not  only  vain  but  demoralizing.  It  leads  to  a  total 
misconception  of  woman's  true  dignity  and  special  mission.  It 
tends  to  personal  struggle  and  rivalry,  where  the  only  effort  of 
both  great  divisions  of  the  human  family  should  be  to  contribute 
the  characteristic  labor  and  the  best  gifts  of  each  to  the  common 
stock.'" 


HKiHKU    ICDUCATION    <)K    WOMEN.  I1.!.") 

"It  is  all  very  well,"  replied  Mrs.  Notion,  "for  ladies 
occupying  their  secure  and  advantageous  position  to  sit  serenely 
and  theorize  about  these  things.  For  them  the  most  perplexing 
and  distressing  problems  of  life  are  already  solved.  They  are  not 
pinched  by  want,  or  forced  into  industrial  pursuits  by  the  pres- 
sure of  stern  necessity." 

"Their  opinion,  then,"  replied  Mr.  Notion,  "is  all  the  more 
valuable.  Those  who  are  in  the  thick  of  the  conflict,  and  whose 
personal  interests  are  directly  involved,  are  not  best  qualified  to 
take  a  fair,  unprejudiced  view  of  the  situation.  They  have  not 
the  mental  perspective  or  calmness  of  vision  which  are  required. 
Mind  you,  I  am  not  criticising  the  women  who  are  forced  by  their 
necessities  to  fill  positions  formerly  occupied  by  men.  Nor  would 
I  harshly  censure  even  those  who  enter  industrial  pursuits  without 
any  such  compulsion.  There  are  thousands  of  men  who  are  glad 
to  secure  for  their  daughters  positions  where  they  can  earn  a  little 
pin  money,  or  contribute  something  to  the  family  exchequer. 
These  fathers  do  not  see  the  drift  of  things,  and,  if  they  did,  each 
would  be  likely  to  make  an  exception  of  his  own  daughter,  on  the 
plea  that  the  general  community  could  not  be  at  all  affected  by 
the  course  of  a  single  individual,  or  that,  if  his  daughter  did  not 
accept  the  employment,  some  other  girl  would.  I  am  discussing 
the  general  tendencies  in  operation  around  us  to-day,  and  their 
bearing  upon  the  welfare  of  society  at  large.  But  the  English 
ladies  whom  I  have  quoted  are  not  alone  in  their  attitude  of 
opposition  to  the  present  trend  of  things.  Adele  Crepaz,  a  Ger- 
man lady,  says  in  a  tract  entitled  'The  Emancipation  of 
Women,'  the  English  translation  of  which  was  published  in  1893, 
that  this  movement  of  women  toward  so-called  industrial  and 
political  equality  with  men,  commenced  in  1860." 

"But  is  she  a  woman  whose  opinion  is  worthy  of  serious  con- 
sideration?" asked  Mrs.  Notion. 

"I  can  only  say  as  to  that,"  responded  Mr.  Notion,  "that 
Gladstone,  who  read  her  tract  in  the  original  German,  heartily 
commended  its  sentiments,  and  said  that  she  had  opened  up  for 
him  some  instructive  and  entirely  new  lines  of  thought.  But 
listen  to  what  she  says  of  American  women:  'The  woman  of  the 
northern  states  of  America  is  on  an  average  more  highly  educated 
than  the  man.  She  supplants  the  man  in  those  careers  which  of 
right  belong  to  him  by  reason  of  his  superior  abilities,  without 
making  any  mark  in  them  herself,  estranging  herself  even  further 


196  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

from  the  aim  of  her  natural  vocation.  She  does  not  grasp  the 
idea  of  her  life's  work  as  woman,  but,  assuming  equal  rights  with 
man,  forgets  the  laws  of  nature,  which  assign  to  each  sex  its 
several  tasks  in  life.  Her  independent  standing  is  hot  without 
influence  upon  her  spirit;  her  heart  grows  less  sensitive  to  tender 
emotions,  and  a  marriage  of  reason  is  the  only  one  she  thinks  of. 
It  is  well  known  that  the  happiest  marriages  in  America  are  those 
contracted  between  American  men  and  German  women.  The 
German  wife  surrounds  her  husband  with  affectionate  care  and 
solicitude,  and  devotes  herself  to  making  his  home  life  intensely 
happy  and  bright;  while  the  American  husband,  thoroughly 
appreciating  her  good  qualities,  treats  her  with  the  greatest  con- 
sidei'ation  and  deference.' ' 

"You  quote  this  lady's  remarkable  utterances  with  apparent 
approval,"  said  Mrs.  Notion.  "It  strikes  me  that  they  are  very 
unfair  to  the  women  of  America,  and  you  ought  to  be  ashamed  of 
yourself  for  endorsing  any  such  sentiments.  I  am  not  at  all 
surprised,  however,  at  the  view  she  takes  of  the  subject,  for  the 
women  of  Germany  as  a  rule  are  so  oppressed  and  overawed  by 
the  men  that  they  are  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  idea  of  their 
own  inferiority,  and  naturally  regard  the  self-reliance  and 
independence  of  American  women  as  something  dreadful.  For 
instance,  Professor  Lorenz  von  Stein,  in  his  work  'Woman 
from  the  Standpoint  of  Political  Economy,'  says:  '  Man  desires  a 
being  that  not  only  loves  but  understands  him;  a  being  whose 
heart  not  only  beats  for  him,  but  whose  hand  smooths  his  brow;  a 
being  that,  wherever  it  appears,  irradiates  peace,  rest,  on  lei', 
silent  control  over  ikelf  and  over  the  thousand  trifles  that  make 
up  his  daily  life;  he  desires  a  being  that  diffuses  over  everything 
that  indefinable  odor  of  womanhood  which  is  the  vivifying  warmth 
of  domestic  life.'  You  will  observe,  Edward,  that  this  German 
gentleman  speaks  of  woman  as  'it'  and  'itself,'  evidently  deem- 
ing her  unworthy  of  the  personal  pronoun  'she.'  Bebel,  com- 
menting on  this,  well  says  that  the  ILerr  Professor  paints  woman  a> 
an  airy  creature,  who,  though  capable  of  keeping  her  housekeeper's 
book  balanced,  possesses  no  independent  individuality  beyond  that 
point,  but  'flits  about  the  master  of  the  house,  the  all-powerful 
lion,  like  a  gentle  zephyr  of  spring,  reads  every  wish  in  his  t  \<<. 
and  with  her  small,  soft  hand  smooths  away  the  wrinkles  which 
reflections  on  his  own  folly  have  possibly  called  forth.' ' 

' '  I   think   myself, ' '   admitted  Mr,   Notion,    ' '  that  von  Stein 


HIGHER    EDUCATION    OF    WOMEN.  197 

goes  too  far  in  his  picture  of  woman  as  a  mere  minister  of  man." 
' '  Perhaps,  Edward,  you  would  agree  better  with  Schopenhauer, 
the  celebrated  German  philosopher,  who  utters  the  following 
words  of  wisdom  concerning  my  sex :  '  Woman  is  not  called  to 
great  things.  Her  characteristics  are  not  active,  but  passive. 
She  pays  her  debt  to  life  by  the  throes  of  birth,  care  of  the 
children,  subjection  to  her  husband.  The  most  intense  utter- 
ances of  volition  and  sense  are  denied  to  her.  Her  life  is  des- 
tined to  be  less  eventful  and  more  trivial  than  that  of  man.  It 
is  her  vocation  to  nurse  and  educate  children,  because  she  is  her- 
self childish,  and  remains  an  overgrown  child  all  her  life,  a  kind 
of  intermediate  tiling  between  the  child  and  the  man,  who  is  the 
only  proper  human  being.  Girls  should  be  brought  up  to  habits 
of  domesticity  and  servility.' ' 

"No,"  remonstrated  Mr.  Notion,  "I  do  not  concur  in  any 
such  absurd  and  brutal  sentiments.  The  man  who  could  write 
that  way,  knows  nothing  about  woman,  and  is  totally  unworthy 
of  that  priceless  gift,  a  good  woman's  love.  With  him  'domes- 
ticity '  and  '  servility '  are  evidently  synonyms,  and  his  allusion 
to  woman  as  a  '  thing '  is  grossly  insulting  to  the  womanhood  of 
our  race.  Like  you,  I  resent  it,  and  vote  Mr.  Schopenhauer  a 
boor.  In  this  connection  it  is  really  gratifying  to  read  the  com- 
ments of  Miss  Agnes  Manning  upon  this  so-called  philosopher. 
In  her  address  at  the  recent  Woman's  Convention  held  in  San 
Francisco,  she  said :  '  The  modern  Germanic  woman  has  had  much 
to  endure  through  that  miserable  pessimist  Schopenhauer.  Even 
in  America  we  are  made  well  acquainted  with  him  by  some  of 
our  distinguished  lecturers,  who,  while  they  affect  to  controvert 
his  ideas,  take  care  to  well  advertise  them.  I  never  hear  one  of 
their  essays  before  women's  clubs  or  congresses  without  thinking, 
with  Shakespeare,  that  there  are  those  who  borrow  friendship's 
tongue  to  speak  their  scorn.  This  wretched  slanderer  of  women 
did  not  speak  to  his  own  mother  or  sister  for  fifteen  years,  because 
they  would  not  sign  over  to  him  their  little  property.  He  kicked 
a  lame  dressmaker  down  long  flights  of  stairs  because  he  said  she 
stood  on  his  landing.  It  was  a  lodging-house,  and  her  room  also 
faced  this  landing.  German  law,  never  lenient  to  a  woman, 
compelled  him  to  pay  her  an  annuity  for  life  for  the  injuries  she 
sustained.  Such  was  the  man  whose  brutal  sentences  about 
women  are  quoted  by  men  who  call  themselves  scholars  and 
gentlemen. ' ' 


198  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

"I. was  really  afraid,"  said  Mrs.  Notion  mischievously,  "that 
you  would  say  amen  to  the  profound  observations  of  the  kind  and 
tender  Teutonic  sage.  In  refreshing  contrast,  however,  to  his 
views,  and  those  of  Adele  Crepaz,  are  those  expressed  by  another 
German  woman  at  the  World's  Congress  of  Representative 
Women,  in  1893.  I  refer  to  Lina  Morgenstern,  who  protested 
against  the  egotistic  position  assumed  by  German  men  in  their 
relations  with  women,  and  their  deep-seated  conviction  that  the 
latter  were  their  inferiors  in  every  way. ' ' 

' '  And  yet,  Matilda,  I  sincerely  believe  that  Adele  Crepaz  is 
very  close  to  the  truth  in  all  that  she  says  about  the  true  functions 
of  women,  and  the  departure  of  American  women  from  those 
functions.  Thinking  thus,  it  would  certainly  be  very  inconsistent 
on  my  part  to  find  fault  with  her  for  saying  the  very  things  which 
I  have  said  repeatedly  myself.  Indeed,  I  am  pleased  to  find 
corroboration  in  such  an  unexpected  quarter." 

"The  fact,  Edward,  that  a  woman  so  far  forgets  her  inherent 
dignity  of  sex  as  to  encourage  men  in  their  outrageous  pretensions, 
proves  nothing.  Unfortunately,  you  can  find  too  many  such 
women  in  America,  as  well  as  in  Europe.  There  are  some  men, 
however,  who  are  more  magnanimous  than  you  and  the  German 
professors  and  philosophers,  and  who  insist  that  woman  should 
be  accorded  all  the  rights  and  privileges  which  man  enjoys. 
Perhaps  the  most  distinguished  of  these  noble  men  was  John 
Stuart  Mill,  the  noted  English  political  economist  and  philos- 
opher, who  in  his  great  work  on  the  '  Subjection  of  Woman, ' 
advocates  at  length  and  in  the  most  convincing  manner  the 
bestowal  upon  women  of  a  complete  legal,  political,  and  industrial 
equality  with  men.  In  this  book,  which  has  been  translated  into 
the  languages  of  all  civilized  nations,  he  says:  '  We  have  had  the 
morality  of  submission  and  the  morality  of  chivalry  and  gener- 
osity; the  time  is  now  come  for  the  morality  of  justice.'  lie  also 
insists  that  women's  disabilities  outside  of  the  home  are  only 
clung  to  in  order  to  maintain  their  subordination  in  domestic  lite; 
because  the  generality  of  the  male  sex  can  not  yet  tolerate  the 
idea  of  living  with  an  equal.  I  think,  Edward,  that  you  would 
do  well  to  study  this  able  and  dispassionate  work,  before  express- 
ing yourself  with  too  great  positiveness  on  a  subject  of  so  much 
importance,  for  Mr.  Mill  approaches  it  from  the  standpoint  of  a 
philosopher,  and  yet  reaches  conclusions  which  are  diametrically 
opposite  to  yours." 


HIGHER    EDUCATION    OF    WOMEN.  199 

"I  am  somewhat  familiar  with  his  book,  Matilda,  and  I 
acknowledge  that  it  has  attained  a  wide  circulation  and  a  marvel- 
ous influence,  especially  with  the  members  of  your  sex.  But  it 
is  in  no  sense  a  fair  statement  of  the  case.  It  is  a  special  plea, 
full  of  false  assumptions,  palpable  misconceptions,  and  inflamma- 
tory appeals  to  the  feelings  and  prejudices  of  women.  It  is  by 
all  odds  the  weakest  product  of  Mr.  Mill's  strong  intellect.  Nor 
has  it  been  left  unanswered.  Several  able  replies  have  been  made 
to  it,  one  of  which,  published  by  Lippincott  &  Co.,  in  1870, 
brings  to  light  all  the  fallacies  of  the  self- constituted  champion  of 
your  sex,  and  shows  the  absurdity,  inconsistency,  and  unreason- 
ableness of  Mr.  Mill's  arguments." 

"Permit  me  to  inquire  the  name  of  the  author,' '  inquired  Mrs. 
Notion.  ' '  He  must  be  a  great  man,  for  I  am  satisfied  that  no 
ordinary  individual  could  succeed  in  accomplishing  what  you  say 
he  has  achieved." 

"lam  sorry  to  say,"  answered  Mr.  Notion,  "that  the  book 
is  anonymous." 

' '  That  is  enough  for  me,  Edward.  The  arguments  of  a  man 
who  is  asl mined  to  reveal  his  own  personality  will  carry  no  weight 
to  my  mind." 

' '  My  chief  objection,  Matilda,  to  any  scheme  which  aims  at 
equality  of  the  sexes  in  any  other  than  a  moral  and  spiritual 
sense,  is  that  it  will  inevitably  tend  to  minify  the  differences 
which  have  existed  between  men  and  women  from  the  beginning, 
and  to  which  we  are  all  so  accustomed." 

"Well,"  inquired  Mrs.  Notion,  "what  harm  will  that  do?" 

"Much,  and  for  this  reason,"  replied  Mr.  Notion.  "'  Men  and 
women  do  not  look  for  resemblances  in  their  mates,  but  rather  for 
differences.  You  must  admit,  if  there  were  no  distinctions  what- 
ever between  the  sexes,  except  those  of  their  reproductive  func- 
tions, that  the  tender  passion  which  we  call  conjugal  love  would 
be  impossible.  Now,  I  claim  that  as  those  differences  are 
accentuated,  the  love  which  the  opposite  sexes  bear  to  each  other 
is  proportionately  intensified,  and  that  as  they  are  diminished  or 
modified,  such  affection  is  weakened  in  a  corresponding  degree. 
It  logically  follows  that,  as  women  fill  the  places,  do  the  work, 
and  acquire  the  manners  of  men,  marriages  will  more  and 
more  decrease,  and  evils  will  result  of  such  awful  character 
and  stupendous  magnitude  that  I  shrink  from  their  discussion. 
If  you  will  pardon  me  for  quoting  from  another  German  author, 


200  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

I  say  with  Goethe:  'He  who  by  word  or  deed  undermines  the 
very  foundation  of  all  civilized  society,  let  him  have  it  out  with 
me;  and,  if  I  can  not  convince  him,  I  will  have  no  more  of 
him.  Marriage  is  the  beginning  and  the  acme  of  all  culture.' 
A  dele  Crepaz  says  in  this  connection,  speaking  of  woman:  'Her 
equality  with  man  must  diminish  her  womanly  attributes  hy 
removing  those  contrasts  which  have  hitherto  attracted  the  sexes 
to  each  other.  The  husband  will  no  longer  find  those  feminine 
qualities  which  he  values  and  needs  to  perfect  his  own  nature. 
The  wife  would  become  her  husband's  comrade,  but  no  longer  be 
the  loving  helpmeet,  lavishing  her  care,  her  sanctifying  devotion 
upon  him.  This  want  of  the  true  womanly  attributes  is  already 
apparent,  as  we  have  said,  in  the  American  wife  of  the  day,  who 
is  accustomed  to  receive  every  attention  from  her  husband  as  a 
matter  of  course,  without  rendering  him  any  of  the  affectionate 
solicitude  of  a  German  wife. ' ' 

"But,"  replied  Mrs.  Notion,  "even  if  I  were  to  admit  your 
major  premise  that  sex  contrasts  are  the  foundation  of  sex  affec- 
tion, and  that  the  latter  will  increase  or  diminish  in  the  same 
ratio  with  the  former,  I  do  not  concede  your  minor  premise  that 
the  tendency  of  the  emancipation  of  women  from  the  thraldom 
and  servility  of  ages  wall  be  to  lessen  in  any  degree  their  peculiar 
graces  and  attractions.  On  the  contrary,  I  believe  that  as  thev 
assume  their  true  position  as  men's  equals,  their  charms  will  be 
greatly  heightened,  and  their  hold  upon  the  minds  as  well  as  the 
hearts  of  men  will  be  much  stronger  than  it  has  ever  been  in  the 
past.  Balzac  says:  '  A  woman  that  has  received  a  masculine 
education  possesses  the  most  brilliant  and  fertile  qualities  with 
which  to  secure  the  happiness  of  her  husband  and  herself. ' ' 

"  But  the  facts,  Matilda,  do  not  bear  out  either  you  or  Balzac 
in  this  assertion.  It  is  well  known  that  business  and  professional 
women  do  not  marry,  as  a  rule,  and  that  the  domestic  life  of  those 
who  do  take  unto  themselves  husbands,  is  not  distinguished  for 
its  bliss.  There  are  innumerable  women  in  this  country  who 
refuse  marriage  in  order  that  they  may  employ  their  abilities  in 
work  of  general  usefulness.  They  feel  that  the  narrow  area  of 
the  home  is  too  restricted  for  the  free  play  of  their  powers.  This 
is  all  wrong.  The  moral  nature  of  both  men  and  women  is  at  its 
best  in  the  marriage  relation,  and  women,  as  well  as  men,  are 
more  likely  to  be  led  astray  under  circumstances  of  isolation. 
Dr.  Kosa  Kerschbauinner,  a  German  lady  physician  of  great 


HIGHER,    EDUCATION    OF    WOMEN.  201 

talents,  admits  in  her  interesting  treatise  on  female  pnysicians, 
that  only  a  small  proportion  of  woman  doctors  are  married,  and 
she  says  this  is,  clearly,  'because  the  higher  education  and  her 
independent  standing  enable  a  woman  to  seek  and  to  find  her 
happiness  apart  from  men.' ' 

' '  But, ' '  said  Mrs.  Notion,  abruptly  changing  the  direction  of 
the  conversation,  "you  will  surely  acknowledge  that  where  hus- 
band and  wife  both  engage  in  professional  or  business  pursuits, 
there  will  be  at  least  great  financial  advantages,  and  the  family 
income  will  be  largely  increased." 

"  I  do  not  think,"  replied  Mr.  Notion,  "that  there  is  anything 
gained  in  that  respect,  for,  where  women  compete  on  a  large 
scale  with  men  in  any  sphere  of  activity,  the  inevitable  result  of 
such  competition  will  be  to  lower  the  standard  of  compensation. 
But,  eliminating  that  feature,  and  considering  an  isolated  case  of 
productive  industry  on  the  pai*t  of  both  spouses,  I  am  of  the 
opinion  that  when  a  woman  has  professional  or  other  duties  out- 
side of  her  home,  the  latter  will  be  conducted  on  a  far  more 
expensive  scale.  We  all  know  that  a  prudent,  economical  wife 
can  carry  on  her  own  establishment  for  a  much  less  sum  than  any 
hired  housekeeper  can.  It  follows  that  the  wife  who  devotes  her- 
self actively  and  wisely  to  the  maintenance  of  her  home,  will  save 
as  much  money  as  she  could  ordinarily  earn  outside  of  the  domes- 
tic circle.  Even  John  Stuart  Mill  says  that  the  greatest  evil  of 
competition  would  be  if  a  man  and  his  wife  together  could  only 
earn  as  much  as  the  man  could  formerly  do  alone;  and  this  I 
insist  would  be  the  logical  and  necessary  outcome  of  the  entry  of 
women  generally  into  the  industrial  world." 

"I  am  glad  to  hear  you  admit  the  great  pecuniary  value  of  a 
careful  wife's  supervision  of  the  household,"  said  Mrs.  Notion, 
"and  in  this  connection  I  wish  to  refer  to  women's  clubs  and 
societies,  and  the  good  results  which  are  accomplished  by  women 
meeting  together  and  exchanging  ideas  and  experiences.  These 
associations  are  conducted  in  such  a  manner  as  to  be  extremely 
beneficial  to  the  members — not  in  any  merely  selfish  or  material 
way,  but  by  enlarging  and  elevating  their  conceptions  of  all  that 
goes  to  make  up  a  well-rounded,  symmetrical  womanhood.  They 
meet  together  to  listen  to  lectures  by  experts  in  cooking,  dressing, 
hygiene,  the  care  of  children,  household  sanitation,  domestic 
economics,  etc.,  and  in  every  possible  way  they  try  to  make 
themselves  better  wives  and  mothers,  and  more  useful  members  of 


202  DOMESTIC   DUKl.s. 

society.  They  also  discuss  literary  and  artistic  subjects,  and 
interest  themselves  ill  innumerable  reformatory  measures  and 
agencies  for  the  prevention  of  vice  and  crime,  and  the  protection 
and  safeguarding  of  the  youth  of  the  land." 

'•I  must  admit,"  said  Mr.  Notion,  "that  these  societies  are 
doing  a  magnificent  work,  and  that  they  reflect  great  credit  upon 
the  women  who  compose  them." 

"Especially  so,"  continued  Mrs.  Notion,  "in  view  of  the 
fact  that  they  are  in  such  marked  contrast  to  your  male  clubs 
and  societies.-  Who  ever  heard  of  men  meeting  together  to  try 
to  elevate  themselves,  and  make  themselves  better  husbands  and 
fathers?  I  think  I  can  imagine  the  treatment  which  any  man 
would  receive  who  had  the  hardihood  to  seriously  propose  the 
advisability  of  the  members  of  his  club  exchanging  ideas,  or 
listening  to  suggestions  from  experts  who  had  given  the  subject 
special  study,  as  to  how  they  could  more  intelligently  and  suc- 
cessfully perform  their  duties  as  husbands  and  fathers.  Such  a 
proposal  would  be  laughed  to  scorn,  and,  if  persisted  in,  would 
subject  him  who  made  it  to  summary  expulsion  from  his  club." 

' '  I  confess  that  there  is  much  force  in  your  remarks, ' '  said 
Mr.  Notion.  "Some  allowance,  however,  must  be  made  for  the 
fact  that  man's  functions  as  husband  and  father  are  largely  over- 
shadowed by  his  professional  and  business  pursuits,  lines  of 
activity  in  which  he  is  compelled  to  engage  almost  incessantly 
as  the  bread-winner  for  his  family.  That  I  am  right  in  this  is 
further  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  women  who  actively  compete 
with  men,  and  whose  energies  are  chiefly  absorbed  in  earning 
money,  take  little  more  interest  in  the  topics  to  which  you  refer 
than  the  men  themselves.  But  the  principal  reason  why  women's 
societies  are  so  much  more  helpful  and  rational,  and  so  much 
more  in  accord  with  the  practical  and  utilitarian  spirit  of  our  age 
than  those  of  men,  is  because  it  is  only  of  recent  years  that 
women  have  organized  their  clubs  and  associations.  Hence,  they 
are  modern  in  spirit  and  conduct,  and  in  perfect  keeping  with  the 
genius  of  civilized  communities.  Men,  on  the  other  hand, 
organized  themselves  into  guilds,  unions,  and  secret  fraternities 
many  centuries  ago,  and  their  organizations  received  form  and 
impulse  from  the  semi-barbarous  state  of  society  which  existed  in 
those  times." 

"Why,  Edward,  your  idea  is  a  strikingly  new  one  to  me,  and 
yet  I  think  you  are  correct. ' ' 


HIGHER    EDUCATION    OF    WOMEN.  203 

' '  I  feel  quite  sure  that  I  am,  Matilda.  The  fact  is  that  men 
have  gone  on  from  generation  to  generation,  and,  finding  power- 
ful societies  in  existence,  have  joined  them  without  serious  thought 
as  to  their  real  tendencies.  They  never  stop  to  think  that  those 
fraternities  were  formed  in  by-gone  ages  to  meet  conditions  which 
no  longer  exist,  but  feeling  within  themselves  the  desire  for  some 
sort  of  societies,  they  plunge  into  those  which  are  ready-made 
and  waiting  to  receive  them.  Hence  it  is  that  the  men  of  to-day 
are  measurably  moulded  by  their  semi-civilized  predecessors  of 
the  long  ago,  and  the  strangest  part  of  it  is  that,  instead  of  being 
ashamed  of  the  absurdities,  puerilities,  and  meaningless  and  silly 
forms  and  flummeries  of  their  secret  orders,  they  are  proud  of 
the  fact  that  those  orders  are  so  ancient." 

' '  Don' t  you  think, ' '  asked  Mrs.  Notion,  ' '  that  men  get  some 
benefit  from  these  secret  societies  ? ' ' 

' '  Yes,  Matilda,  but  not  enough  to  repay  for  the  time,  energy, 
and  money  spent  in  connection  with  them.  I  hope  men  will  soon 
imitate  you  good  women,  and  meet  together  in  modern  societies, 
for  real  self-improvement,  and  upon  a  rational  basis. ' ' 


Mr.  and  Mrs.  Notion  Discuss  the  Progress  of 
Women  in  the  Professions. 

"  I  am  ashamed  that  women  are  so  simple 
To  offer  war  where  they  should  kneel  for  peace; 
Or  seek  for  rule,  supremacy,  and  sway, 
When  they  are  bound  to  serve,  love,  and  olicy." 

—  Shakespeare* 

"  A  woman  impudent  and  mannish  grown 
Is  not  more  loathed  than  an  effeminate  man 
In  time  of  action." 


"I  have  much,  to  say,"  remarked  Mrs.  Notion,  "about 
woman's  achievements  in  the  different  professions,  and  I  should 
like  to  call  your  attention  to  some  literary  women  of  our  own  and 
perhaps  other  lands.  I  can  hardly  more  than  mention  their 
names,  but  even  that  will  remind  you  of  the  fact  that  we.  arc 
capable  of  the  most  brilliant  attainments  in  the  world  of  letters. 
In  some  of  our  previous  conversations  I  have  referred  to  quite  a 
number  of  literary  women  in  different  countries  and  ages,  and  I 
now  wish  more  particularly  to  speak  of  what  American  women 
have  accomplished  in  this  direction.  One  of  the  first  American 
women  to  distinguish  herself  in  this  field  of  action  was  Margaret 
Fuller,  who  wrote  an  able  work  on  '  Woman  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century.'  You  have  read  and  reread  that  wonderful  book, 
'Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,'  written  by  Mrs.  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe, 
but  you  may  not  know  that  300,  000  copies  of  it  were  sold  in  one 
year  from  the  date  of  its  first  publication,  and  that  eight  power 
presses  were  kept  running  day  and  night  to  supply  the  demand. 
The  British  Museum  now  contains  35  complete  editions  in  Eng- 
lish, and  translations  of  the  work  exist  in  at  least  twenty  different 
languages.  'Robert  Elsmere,'  written  by  Mrs.  Humphrey 
Ward,  an  English  lady,  was  one  of  the  most  popular  novels  ever 
placed  before  the  reading  public,  and  200,000  copies  were  sold  in 
America  the  first  year,  for  which  the  author  only  received  $500, 
as  a  result  of  the  piracy  of  American  publishers.  Women  have 


PROGRESS    IN    THE    PROFESSIONS.  205 

been  writing  for  Hdr/x'r  K  since  1850,  and  for  the  Atlantic  Month/;/ 
since  1857.  Among  our  noted  writers  of  fiction  I  may  mention: 
I  {use  Terry,  Mrs.  Stoddart,  Elizabeth  Stuart  Phelps,  Lillie  Chace 
Wyman,  Sarah  Orne  Jewett,  Margaret  Delaud,  Mary  E.  Wil- 
kius,  Constance  Fenimore  Woolson,  Mary  Hal  leek  Foote,  Mrs. 
Frances  Hodgson  Burnett,  Blanche  Willis  Howard,  Mrs.  Jack- 
son, the  author  of  that  celebrated  book  '  Ramona, '  Miss  Murfree, 
under  the  nom  de  plume  of  Charles  Egbert  Craddock,  Louisa  M. 
Alcott,  Mi's.  Southworth,  and  Mary  Mapes  Dodge." 

"They  certainly  constitute  a  very  notable  group  of  talented 
women,"  assented  Mr.  Notion. 

' '  Yes,  indeed,  Edward,  and  the  women  poets  of  America  are 
also  worthy  of  admiration.  Chief  among  them  are:  Mrs.  Fields, 
Mrs.  Spofford,  Mrs.  Margaret  J.  Preston,  Mrs.  Mary  Ashley 
Townsend,  Elizabeth  Akers  Allen,  Julia  C.  R.  Dorr,  Mrs. 
Whitney,  Mrs.  Dodge,  Mrs.  Moulton,  Mrs.  Thaxter,  Mrs. 
Mary  E.  Bradley,  Kate  Putnam  Osgood,  Nora  Perry,  and 
Mary  N.  Prescott.  Women  have  also  excelled  in  journalism, 
and  are  doing  as  good  work  and  receiving  as  large  pay  as  men, 
so  that  in  that  department  your  argument  of  cheap  female  com- 
petition would  not  apply." 

' '  And  do  I  understand  you  to  contend,  Matilda,  that  women 
authors  are  at  all  comparable  with  the  great  literary  men  who 
have  achieved  such  prodigies  in  the  realm  of  letters?" 

"Yes,"  replied  Mrs.  Notion,  "when  we  consider  their  dis- 
advantages, and  the  almost  insuperable  difficulties  with  which 
they  have  had  to  contend,  I  think  they  have  displayed  a  genius 
fully  equal  to  that  of  the  men." 

"Mrs.  Annie  Nathan  Meyer  hardly  agrees  with  you  in  this 
high  estimate  of  your  sex.  She  says,  '  I  am  perfectly  willing  to 
admit  that  they  (women)  have  produced  no  genius  of  the  Highest 
rank — the  rank  of  Dante  and  Shakespeare,  and  Milton  and 
Goethe.'  " 

"It  is  quite  possible,"  said  Mrs.  Notion,  "that  we  have  not 
yet  equaled  the  men  of  surpassing  genius  whom  Mrs.  Meyer 
names,  but  give  us  time  and  opportunity,  and  we  will  astound 
you  with  our  brilliant  achievements.  Already  we  have  produced 
Elizabeth  Barret  Browning,  Charlotte  Bronte,  George  Eliot,  or, 
more  properly  speaking,  Mrs.  Lewes,  Harriet  Martineau,  Miss 
Moloch,  and  other  women  who  have  no  living  superiors  iu  the 
literary  field. ' ' 


206  DOMESTIC 

"I  am  glad,  Matilda,  that  you  are  magnanimous  enough  to 
place  Miss  Muloch  hi  this  list,  despite  her  disparaging  remarks 
about  women.  And,  by  the  way,  speaking  of  Charlotte  Bronte, 
she  is  credited  with  saying  that  '  indisputably,  a  great,  good, 
handsome  man  is  the  first  of  created  beings. '  In  this  there  lurks 
an  admission  of  the  superiority  of  my  aex." 

"That  is  the  way  with  women,  Edward.  They  are  ever 
ready  to  exalt  and  uplift  men,  but  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  usually 
the  men  are  not  willing  to  reciprocate,  and  you  are  no  exception 
to  the  rule." 

"In  this  connection,  my  dear,  it  is  interesting  to  notice  what 
Alice  Wellington  Rollins,  of  New  York,  in  her  address  before 
the  Women's  Congress,  says  about  the  manner  in  which  cele- 
brated men  deal  with  woman:  'Homer  rose  in  reverence  as  she 
passed  by,  humbled  by  the  sense  of  her  power,  even  when  she 
used  it  wilfully;  Petrarch  exalted  her;  Dante  adored  her;  Henry 
James  studies  her;  Maupassant  thought  her  wicked  but  interest- 
ing; Tennyson  tolerated  her;  Thackeray  graciously  refused  to 
look  beneath  the  surface  of  her  gentle  little  heart,  when  it  seemed 
to  be  gentle;  Scott  heroined  her;  Wordsworth  commended  her; 
Byron  hated  her;  Hawthorne  admired  her;  Crawford  pities  her; 
Howells  photographs  her;  Goethe  was  sorry  for  her;  Punch 
caricatures  her;  Burns  smiled  at  her;  Moore  succumbed  to  her; 
Dickens  laughed  at  her;  Heine  married  her  at  last;  Tolstoi  plants 
her  in  sunshine,  and  Avaters  her  with  his  tears,  only  to  tear  her 
up  by  the  roots  in  the  end;  Victor  Hugo  idealizes  her;  Bourget 
dissects  her;  Balzac  understood  her;  but  in  literature,  as  in  life, 
no  man  has  ever  ignored  her;  and  in  literature,  as  in  life,  I  seek 
in  vain  for  any  man  whose  opinion  of  her  coidd  be  characterized 
by  saying  simply  that  he  "liked  her."  There  are  no  platonic 
friendships  in  books,  as  there  are  none  but  dangerous  ones 
in  life.' ' 

"Thank  you  for  reading  that,  Edward,  for  I  deem  it  a 
remarkably  brilliant  piece  of  writing,  a  wonderful  generalization 
of  the  attitude  which  great  literary  men  of  all  times  have 
assumed  toward  woman." 

''As  you  enjoy  it  so  much,"  playfully  retorted  Mr.  Notion, 
"I  shall  read  a  little  more  from  the  same  sparkling  address: 
'Oddly  enough,  woman  has  never  tried  to  exalt,  or  excuse,  or 
wonder  at,  or  caricature,  or  hate,  or  photograph,  or  study,  or 
dissect  herself.  Even  when  she  tries  to  paint  an  ideal  woman, 


PROOKKSS    IN    Till-;    I'KOFKSSIONS.  207 

she  fails  lamentably.  Her  Romolas  and  Dinahs  and  Dorothies 
are  horribly  cold,  and  fall  infinitely  below  the  incomparable 
pictures  men  have  drawn  of  idealized  or  idolized  women.'  In 
another  place  she  says,  and  I  agree  with  her,  that  'woman's 
place  in  literature  may  yet  come  to  be  that  of  a  superlatively 
correct  observer  of  the  folly,  the  chivalry,  the  weakness,  the 
nobleness  of  men,  as  man's  place  has  so  long  been  that  of  the 
cleverest,  most  subtle,  most  keen,  most  generous  observer  of 
the  woman  herself.'  ' 

"How  willing  women  always  are  to  glorify  man,  and  look  up 
to  him  in  rapt  admiration  and  wonder!  The  gifted  lady  whom 
you  quote  is  a  thorough  woman  in  that  respect,  but  I  think  she 
carries  her  reverence  for  men's  ability  too  far,  and  I  am  not 
prepared  to  concede,  as  she  does,  that  woman  has  utterly  failed  in 
depicting  herself  in  fiction.  But  other  phases  of  the  subject 
await  us,  and  with  your  permission  I  shall  close  my  remarks 
concerning  literary  women  by  a  brief  quotation  from  Josephine 
Bates,  of  Illinois:  'At  the  feet  of  literature  has  sat  through  the 
ages  its  lowly  handmaiden,  woman,  liarcly  in  the  past  has  her 
untutored  thought  found  hardihood  for  utterance,  but  in  her  life 
she  lived  the  dreams  her  dumb  lips  might  not  speak.  In  every 
country  and  in  every  age  man  has  symboled  his  highest  in  her 
image;  she  has  been  ever  the  guardian  of  social  honor,  the 
anchor  of  religious  faith,  the  embodiment  of  conscience  and  of 
love.  Humbly  she  has  walked,  a  gentle  guide  beckoning  unto 
purity,  to  righteousness,  to  completeness. '  ' 

"Good,  Matilda,  very  good.  I  hope  she  will  continue  to 
walk  humbly,  and  to  guide  gently;  but  she  seems  very  much 
inclined  lately  to  ride  on  the  bicycle  in  preference  to  walking, 
and  to  guide  us  by  the  ears,  rather  than  in  the  gentle  manner  of 
the  past. ' ' 

' '  Perhaps  that  is  because  your  ears  are  so  long,  Edward,  that 
they  present  the  most  conspicuous  objects  for  seizure." 

"A  good  joke,"  laughed  Mr.  Notion.  "I  congratulate 
myself  on  the  possession  of  a  witty  wife,  and  yet  women  are 
not  witty." 

"There  again  you  are  much  mistaken,  sir.  Madame  de 
Stael,  Madame  de  Sevigm',  Marguerite  de  Valois,  Madame 
de  Sartory,  and  many  other  women  whom  I  could  mention, 
were  fully  equal  to  any  of  your  male  wits." 

"For  instance,  Matilda,  for  instance?" 


208  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

"Well,  for  instance,  to  meet  your  challenge,  .Madame  de 
Stael  said,  'Fame  is  for  woman  only  a  splendid  mourning  for 
happiness. '  One  of  Marguerite  de  Valois'  epigrams  is,  '  Hypo- 
crites are  wicked;  they  hide  their  defects  with  so  much  care  that 
their  hearts  are  poisoned  by  them.'  ' 

' '  Very  neat, ' '  interrupted  Mr.  Notion  with  a  smile. 

"Listen,"  chided  Mrs.  Notion.  "Madame  de  Sartory 
observes,  '  There  is  nothing  more  tiresome  than  the  conversation 
of  a  lover  who  has  nothing  to  desire,  and  nothing  to  fear.'  I 
suppose  that  is  why  husbands  are  usually  such  dull  company  for 
their  wives.  But  now  an  epigram  from  Madame  de  Scvigiu', 
and  I  can  proceed.  Among  other  bright  and  true  things  uttered 
by  her  is  this,  '  The  heart  has  no  wrinkles. '  ' 

' '  I  suppose  she  is  right  about  it,  Matilda,  for  we  men  rec<  io- 
nize women  as  authorities  on  all  matters  of  the  heart,  polite 
society,  flattery,  etc.  For  instance,  Madame  de  Bieux,  another 
bright  French  woman,  says,  'Women  who  have  not  fine  teeth 
laugh  only  with  their  eyes.'  Poor  woman,  she  lived  more  than 
three  centuries  ago,  and  knew  nothing  about  the  skill  of  Ameri- 
can dentists!  Ninon  de  Lenclos,  a  woman  of  whom  we  have 
spoken  before  in  these  talks,  remarks:  'Words  really  flattering 
are  not  those  which  we  prepare,  but  those  which  escape  us 
unthinkingly.'  Madame  Geoffrin  said  about  two  centuries  since 
that  '  there  are  three  things  that  women  throw  away,  their  time, 
their  money,  and  their  health.'  Do  you  think — " 

' '  Excuse  me,  Edward,  but  we  have  gone  far  enough  in  this 
direction.  I  am  very  anxious  to  say  something  about  female 
physicians,  lawyers,  etc.,  and  time  is  passing  so  rapidly  that 
I  fear  the  evening  will  be  gone  before  we  can  discuss  our  subject 
in  these  important  aspects." 

"All  right,  my  dear,  I  am  at  your  service.  Tell  me  some- 
thing about  the  gentle  ladies  who  study  anatomy  and  physiology, 
who  pour  over  pathology,  seek  success  in  surgery,  and  throw 
kisses,  as  it  were,  at  therapeutics. " 

"  I  shall  gladly  do  so,"  said  Mrs.  Notion;  "but  I  had  nearly 
forgotten  the  lady  journalists,  of  whom  you  spoke  the  other  even- 
ing. As  they  are  literary  women  of  a  high  order  of  ability,  it  is 
fitting  that  they  should  be  mentioned  in  this  connection,  and  before 
taking  up  the  other  learned  professions,  I  shall  briefly  consider 
them.  The  time  was  when  women  had  not  the  physical  strength 
and  hardihood  which  were  required  in  the  reporter  of  the  metro- 


PROGRESS    IN    THE    PROFESSIONS.  209 

politan  daily.  His  duties  were  irksome  and  often  dangerous, 
and  could  only  be  satisfactorily  performed  by  men  with  a  dash  of 
the  adventurer  in  them.  Now  conditions  are  radically  changed 
in  these  respects,  and  women  can  do  much  of  the  work  of  the 
great  newspapers  with  perfect  ease  and  safety.  Their  steadiness, 
sobriety,  and  reliability  have  made  them  formidable  competitors 
of  the  male  journalists,  and  so  exacting  now  are  the  demands 
upon  the  men  and  women  writers  of  the  daily  papers  that  the 
dissipated,  convivial  fellows  who  constituted  the  rule  rather  than 
the  exception  among  reporters  twenty  years  ago,  when  you  were 
a  journalist,  have  very  largely  passed  away." 

"  And  so  you  think,"  said  Mr.  Notion,  "that  women  journal- 
ists are  more  conscientious,  truthful,  and  loyal  to  the  interests  of 
their  employers  than  the  men." 

"I  do,  sir;  and  it  is  these  very  qualities  which  have  enabled 
them  to  force  their  way  to  the  front  against  many  prejudices  and 
much  opposition.  Women  are  more  patient  and  painstaking 
than  men,  and  are  not  so  prone  to  substitute  the  product  of  their 
imagination  for  sober  facts.  They  hold  many  of  the  best  editorial 
positions  in  the  country  to-day.  Celebrated  among  these  women 
of  the  pen  are  Mrs.  Mary  Mapes  Dodge,  of  the  St.  Nicholas 
Magazine;  Mrs.  Margaret  Songster,  of  Harper's  Bazar;  Mrs. 
Kate  Masterson,  of  the  New  York  Journal;  Mrs.  Margaret 
Welch,  of  the  New  York  Times;  Mrs.  Mary  J.  Lincoln,  of  the 
American  Kitchen  Magazine;  Miss  Cornelia  Cunningham  Bed- 
ford, of  Table  Talk;  Miss  Mary  H.  Krout,  of  the  Chicago 
Inter-  Ocean ;  Miss  Bertha  Damaris  Knobe,  of  the  Chicago 
Tribune;  Mrs.  Margaret  Sullivan,  Miss  Eva  Brodlique,  and  Dr. 
Julia  Holmes  Smith,  of  the  Times-Herald;  and  Mrs.  Black, 
better  known  as  '  Annie  Laurie, '  formerly  of  the  San  Francisco 
Examiner." 

' '  What  kind  of  work  is  done  by  these  ladies  ?  ' '  inquired  Mr. 
Notion. 

"The  very  best,  Edward.  Most  of  them  have  gained  wide 
celebrity  and  deserved  popularity.  Mrs.  Masterson  went  to 
Cuba  as  a  war  correspondent;  Lily  Curry  is  the  leading  corre- 
spondent in  Central  America;  and  Anne  Morton  Lane,  Miss 
Emma  Bullett,  Miss  Grace  Carew  Sheldon,  and  Miss  Catherine 
Cole,  are  doing  brilliant  work  as  European  correspondents  of 
American  papers.  Miss  Kate  Field,  now  deceased,  had  a  world- 
wide fame  as  a  journalist. " 

14 


210  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

"Are  these  gifted  ladies  domestic  in  their  tastes?"  asked  Mr. 
Notion  with  apparent  anxiety. 

"Edward,  you  really  weary  me  with  your  constant  harping 
upon  that  worn-out  string.  Some  of  them  are,  and  others  are 
not.  Let  me  tell  you  once  for  all  that  the  modern  woman  wants 
a  husband  who  appreciates  her  strength  of  Avill  and  tenacity  of 
purpose,  and  unless  he  will  meet  her  on  the  plane  of  perfect 
equality,  she  will  none  of  him." 

"I  don't  think,  Matilda,  that  she  will  have  any  trouble  in 
convincing  him  of  her  strength  of  will." 

"And  another  thing,  Edward;  as  Kaethe  Schirmacher,  a 
German  woman  whose  views  are  in  marked  contrast  to  those  of 
your  Adele  Crepaz,  remarks,  the  modern  woman  is  getting  to  be 
rather  easily  bored,  and  her  attitude  toward  your  sex  generally  is 
more  that  of  indifference  than  veneration.  She  does  not  consider 
marriage  as  her  inevitable  lot,  or  regard  it  as  every  woman's 
chief  vocation.  She  asks  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  person,  rather 
than  a  mere  woman,  and  insists  upon  her  liberty  to  choose  mar- 
riage if  she  is  so  disposed,  and  to  refuse  it  if  she  sees  any  other 
way  of  increasing  her  happiness. ' ' 

"I  for  one,"  exclaimed  Mr.  Notion,  "am  heartily  in  favor 
of  granting  her  that  privilege,  and  the  spinstered,  widowed,  or 
otherwise  man-unencumbered  condition  of  most  of  the  prominent 
advocates  of  women's  rights,  convinces  me  that  quite  a  number 
of  other  men  are  of  my  way  of  thinking.  But  this  is  a  digres- 
sion. Now  for  the  surgeons. ' ' 

' '  Mary  Putnam  Jacobi,  herself  a  physician  of  no  mean  stand- 
ing," said  Mrs.  Notion,  "declares  that  the  history  of  the*  move- 
ment which  introduced  women  into  the  full  practice  of  medicine, 
is  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  modern  times.  She  divides  this 
history  into  seven  distinct  periods:  First,  the  colonial,  or  that  of 
the  exclusively  female  midwifery,  many  of  whose  practitioners 
are  reported  to  have  brought  into  the  world  from  1,000  to 
3,000  infants  each;  second,  the  revolutionary,  when  women  were 
repulsed  from  the  profession  in  consequence  of  the  influence  of 
European  culture  and  knowledge;  third,  that  of  the  reaction 
against  male  midwives;  fourth,  the  opening  of  a  school  of  medi- 
cine for  women  by  Mr.  Samuel  Gregory  in  1848;  fifth,  the 
founding  of  hospitals  where  women  could  obtain  clinical  training, 
the  oldest  of  which  is  the  New  York  Infirmary,  chartered  in 
1850;  sixth,  the  struggle  to  obtain  for  women  physicians  recog- 


rUOGRESS    IN    THE   PROFESSIONS.  211 

nitiou  in  the  profession;  seventh,  the  extension  to  women  of 
opportunities  for  study  and  practice  in  great  hospitals.  In 
1859  the  Medical  Society  of  Montgomery  County,  Pennsylvania, 
admitted  a  woman  to  its  membership.  In  1847  Harriet  K. 
Hunt  was  refused  permission  to  attend  lectures  at  the  Harvard 
Medical  School.  After  the  graduation  of  Elizabeth  Blackwell, 
at  Geneva,  in  1849,  Mrs.  Hunt  repeated  her  application,  and 
during  the  same  year  she  began  practicing  without  a  license. 
Elizabeth  Blackwell  applied  for  admission  to  twelve  medical 
schools,  only  one  of  which,  that  at  Geneva,  New  York,  admitted 
her.  She  studied  two  years  in  Europe  after  her  graduation, 
visiting  the  hospitals  in  London  and  Paris.  Her  sister  Emily 
\vas  refused  admission  to  the  Hobart  College,  at  Geneva,  the 
same  institution  which  had  graduated  Elizabeth.  Rush  College, 
at  Chicago,  however,  allowed  her  to  study  there  for  one  year, 
but  was  censured  by  the  State  Medical  Society  for  so  doing,  and 
consequently  declined  to  admit  her  the  second  year.  She  grad- 
uated at  Cleveland,  Ohio,  in  1852,  after  which  she  went  to 
Europe  and  became  a  private  pupil  of  Sir  James  Simpson,  of 
Edinburg.  She  understood  Latin,  Greek,  French,  German, 
and  Italian.  Other  pioneer  women  in  the  medical  profession 
were:  Marie  Zakzrewska,  Ann  Preston,  Emmeline  Cleveland, 
Sarah  Adamson,  Mrs.  Gleasou,  Mrs.  Thomas,  and  her  sister, 
Mrs.  Longshore.  The  last-named  lady  was  the  first  woman 
physician  to  practice  in  Philadelphia,  and  her  sign  was  such  a 
curiosity  that  crowds  gathered  to  look  at  it.  On  one  occasion  a 
druggist  refused  to  fill  her  prescription,  and  was  impertinent 
enough  to  order  her  home  '  to  look  after  her  house  and  darn  her 
husband's  stockings.'  So  you  see,  Edward,  that  the  men  were 
very  generally  opposed  to  the  acquisition  by  women  of  medical 
knowledge,  as  well  as  to  their  making  a  practical  use  of  such 
knowledge  in  the  treatment  of  disease.  It  was  only  as  the 
members  of  your  sex  were  educated  up  to  the  new  ideas  and 
customs  that  they  became  reconciled  to  them,  and  gradually  grew 
to  believe  that  there  was  nothing  inherently  wrong  in  them.  This 
opposition  was  strongest  among  members  of  the  medical  profession, 
men  of  much  more  than  ordinary  education  and  intelligence. 
And  yet  they  were  mistaken  in  their  views.  Now  is  it  not 
possible,  Edward,  that  you  are  just  as  much  mistaken  in  your 
opinions  as  they  were  in  theirs,  and  that  you  will  see  matters  in  a 
different  light  in  a  few  years,  and  admit  that  your  present  ideas 
were  crude  and  incorrect?" 


212  DOMESTIC  DUELS. 

"You  have  made  quite  a  long  speech,  Matilda.  Your -ques- 
tion, however,  indicates  that  you  expect  an  answer,  and  I  will 
say,  No,  I  do  not  expect  to  undergo  any  such  mental  transfor- 
mation as  that  which  you  indicate.  In  the  first  place,  I  can  not 
agree  with  you  that  these  medical  men  who  opposed  the  admission 
of  women  to  practice  were  entirely  wrong,  or  that  the  practice  of 
medicine  by  women  has  yet  vindicated  all  the  claims  of  its 
advocates.  There  is  still  room  for  honest  difference  of  opinion, 
and  I  have  grave  doubts  as  to  the  advisability  of  encouraging 
women  to  become  physicians.  There  are  many  things  about  the 
study  and  practice  of  medicine  which  have  a  tendency  to  blunt 
the  fine  sensibilities  and  susceptibilities  of  your  sex,  and  to 
impair  the  delicacy  which  is  one  of  its  chief  charms.  Still,  I 
am  in  favor  of  giving  women  the  opportunity  to  fit  themselves 
for  this  and  all  the  other  learned  professions.  I  think  it  is 
eminently  proper  that  they  should  have  the  midwifery  practice, 
and  treat  diseases  which  are  peculiar  to  women.  If  they  would 
confine  themselves  to  that  field,  I  should  give  them  my  unqual- 
ified approval." 

"That  last  sentence  sounds  just  a  little  egotistical,  Ned.  You 
surely  must  know  that  such  a  thing  as  you  suggest  is  entirely 
impracticable.  In  the  very  nature  of  things,  women  practi- 
tioners will  get  as  large  a  clientage  as  possible,  and  will  not 
refuse  lucrative  practice  simply  because  it  is  not  in  accordance 
with  the  ideas  of  male  theorists  like  yourself." 

1 '  I  know  it,  Matilda,  and  for  that  reason  I  fear  that  the  good 
which  will  undoubtedly  come  from  the  obstetrical  practice  of 
women  physicians  will  be  more  than  offset  by  the  evil  that  will 
result  from  their  participation  in  general  practice.  As  I  said 
before,  there  are  many  things  about  the  medical  profession  which, 
if  not  positively  unwomanly,  are  not  compatible  with  the  highest 
standards  of  feminine  modesty  and  refinement." 

"  What  an  old  fogy  you  are,  to  be  sure! "  replied  Mrs.  Notion. 
' '  You  ought  to  learn  something  from  that  ideal  man,  Professor 
Griggs,  of  Stanford  Univeivity.  He  says  that  we  are  living  in 
a  time  of  transition,  when  old  ideals  which  have  largely  outlived 
their  usefulness,  must  give  way  to  new  and  higher  ones;  that  in 
the  evolution  of  woman  differentiation  and  specialization  have 
made  her  character  and  functions  permanently  different  from 
those  of  man;  that  formerly  the  selective  value  was  placed 
entirely  upon  the  woman  who  was  willing  to  lose  her  own  per- 


PROGRESS   IN    THE   PROFESSIONS.  213 

sonality  in  the  life  of  her  family;  but  that  uow  evolution  has 
taken  such  an  advance  as  to  change  the  selective  basis  so  that 
the  human  ideal  tends  to  integrate  in  a  higher  organic  unity  the 
ideals  of  manhood  and  womanhood,  and  to  require  that  woman 
shall  be  not  only  sensitive  and  tender  and  loving,  but  strong  and 
capable  of  some  measure  of  independent  life. ' ' 

"How  clear  and  simple  that  is!"  exclaimed  Mr.  Notion. 
"What  a  happy  and  interesting  way  he  has  of  putting  it!  Now, 
don't  you  know,  I  never  thought  of  that  before.  But — and  you 
will  pardon  the  suggestion,  Matilda — of  course  you  understand 
just  exactly  what  the  good  professor  means." 

"Well,  no,  Edward;  I  shall  be  candid  with  you  and  admit 
that  I  do  not.  While  I  heartily  concur  in  his  conclusions,  I  do 
not  thoroughly  comprehend  the  different  links  in  his  train  of 
reasoning,  which  is  long  and  somewhat  complex.  Nor  can  I 
assent  to  what  you  say  about  the  simplicity  of  his  style.  It 
strikes  me  as  rather  technical  and  involved.  I  suppose,  how- 
ever, that  his  ideas  are  too  grand  and  large  to  be  couched  in 
common  English  word*. " 

"  Just  so, "  ejaculated  Mr. 'Notion;  "but,  fortunately,  another 
man  who  lives  in  the  same  exalted  intellectual  sphere  as  Spencer, 
Fiske,  Huxley,  Tyndall,  Darwin,  Haeckel,  Romanes,  Drum- 
inond,  Jordan,  Le  Conte,  Griggs,  and  the  other  great  men  who 
take  evolution  for  dessert  three  times  a  day,  and  put  what  is  left 
of  it  under  their  pillows  at  night,  has  seized  the  cudgels  against 
Professor  Griggs,  and  opposes  him  with  his  own  weapons — 
something,  by  the  way,  which  an  ordinary  mortal  like  me  could 
not  hope  to  do.  I  allude  to  Prof.  H.  H.  Powers,  formerly  of 
Stanford  University,  and  also  an  evolutionist,  who  says  that  the 
social  necessity  that  is  laid  upon  woman  is  that  she  shall  per- 
petruite  the  race  under  conditions  compatible  with  the  social 
order;  that  in  accordance  with  this  necessity  she  has  assumed 
certain  secondary  functions  or  occupations  which  are  not  arbi- 
trary, but  are  a  part  of  her  adaptation  to  sex  functions,  and  that 
any  change  in  the  character  or  tendencies  of  any  number  of 
women  which  would  prevent  them,  either  from  incapacity  or 
disinclination,  from  perpetuating  themselves  through  maternity, 
would  be  eliminated  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  next  generation 
of  women  would  owe  its  origin  to  mothers  who  represent  a  dif- 
ferent type  of  character  and  tendency,  and  one  more  favorable 
to  the  reproductive  function. ' ' 


214 

"I  think,  Edward,  that  as  you  put  the  ideas  of  Professor 
Powers,  they  are  even  more  difficult  of  comprehension  than  those 
of  our  champion,  Professor  Griggs.  But  I  want  to  say  a  little 
more  about  the  movement  of  medical  women  in  America. 
Women's  hospitals  were  founded  in  the  different  cities  in  the 
following  chronological  order:  New  York,  1854;  Boston  and 
Philadelphia,  1862;  Chicago,  1865;  San  Francisco,  187");  and 
Minneapolis,  1882.  The  census  of  1880  showed  2,432  women 
registered  as  physicians  in  the  United  States,  and  there  are  new 
probably  4,000  at  the  lowest  calculation.  In  1881  the  average 
income  of  seventy-six  lady  physicians  was  $3,000  per  annum. 
Ten  of  these  earned  between  $3,000  and  $4,000;  five  between 
84,000  and  $5,000;  three  between  $5,000  and  $15,000,  and 
four  between  $15,000  and  $20,000." 

' '  This  is  a  very  interesting  subject,  Matilda,  and  I  wish  we 
could  devote  more  time  to  it.  The  practice  of  medicine  by 
women  is  not  a  new  idea,  however.  Hygeia,  the  daughter  of 
JEsculapius,  was  worshiped  as  the  goddess  of  health,  and  among 
the  ancient  Egyptians  the  goddess  Isis  watched  over  the  health  of 
mankind,  while  Salus  and  Valetedu,  both  goddesses,  were  deemed 
by  the  Romans  to  be  the  chief  benefactresses  of  the  public  health 
and  welfare.  But  the  medical  calling  fell  into  disrepute  among 
women,  and  it  was  not  until  the  foundation  of  the  University  of 
Salermo  that  female  doctors  were  again  heard  of.  Among  these 
were  Tartu  la,  Abella,  Rebald,  and  Coustantia  Calendo,  all  of 
whom  were  celebrated  in  their  day.  The  following  famous 
women  physicians  graduated  from  the  University  of  Bologna: 
Anatonia  Alexandra  Gigliani,  Maria  Pettracina,  and  her  daugh- 
ter, Zaffira  Peretti,  and  Katharina  Passi.  Oliva  del  Sabuco 
was  a  distinguished  female  doctor  in  Spain.  Other  celebrated 
lady  practitioners  in  the  olden  times  were  Felicite  de  Tay,  of  the 
University  of  Montpellier,  Anna  Volley  and  Elizabeth  Kent,  in 
England,  and  Anna  Man/olini,  in  Italy,  \\ho  was  given  a 
professorship  at  Milan,  and  had  honorable  distinctions  lavished 
upon  her  by  the  Emperor  Joseph  II." 

"I  am  delighted,  Edward,  to  see  these  evidences  of  your 
interest  in  the  progress  of  women,  and  you  seem  to  know  more 
about  my  noble  sisters  in  distant  countries  than  in  your  own 
land.  Consequently,  I  do  not  expect  to  impart  any  information 
to  you  when  1  say  that  the  European  universities  conferred  upon 
women  the  right  to  study  medicine,  in  the  following  chronological 


PROGRESS    IX    THE   PROFESSIONS.  215 

order:  Zurich,  1864;  Paris,  1868;  Berne,  1872;  London,  1874; 
Italy,  1876;  Dublin,  1876.  In  Russia  the  privilege  was  granted 
in  1872,  but  was  subsequently  withdrawn.  In  Germany  and 
Austria  women  are  not  permitted  to  enter  the  universities.  There 
were  recently  70  lady  physicians  in  London,  5  in  Edinburg, 
2  in  Dublin,  6  in  Italy,  2  in  Spain,  4  in  Berlin,  700  in  Russia, 
54  of  whom  are  members  of  the  clinical  schools  and  laboratories, 
and  100  in  far-off  India." 

"Excuse  me  for  saying  it,  Matilda,  but  Karl  Vogt,  after 
observing  repeatedly  the  female  assistants  in  the  laboratory,  says 
that  they  are  decidedly  unskilful  as  manipulators.  Geheimrath 
Waldeyer,  another  eminent  German  medical  authority,  has  also 
expressed  his  opposition  to  the  practice  of  medicine  by  members 
of  your  sex." 

"  I  do  not  doubt  it,  Edward.  You  could  easily  make  out  a 
formidable  list  of  prominent  medical  men  of  the  present  day  who 
share  his  views  in  that  respect.  But  the  clock  admonishes  me 
that  I  must  hasten.  Let  us  now  talk  a  little  while  about  the 
ladies  of  the  law.  They,  like  their  sisters  in  the  medical  pro- 
fession, have  had  to  fight  every  inch  of  their  upward  way. 
Although  Miss  Margaret  Brent  practiced  as  an  attorney  in  Mary- 
land in  1648,  no  one  is  recorded  as  following  her  example  until 
1869,  when  Arabella  A.  Mansfield  was  admitted  to  the  Iowa  bar. 
About  the  same  time  Mrs.  Myra  Bradwell,  of  Chicago,  was 
refused  admission  to  practice.  Her  appeal  to  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  was  unsuccessful,  and  she  went  into  journal- 
ism until  1890,  when  the  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois,  on  its  own 
motion  unanimously  admitted  her  to  the  bar.  Mrs.  Belva  Ann 
Lockwood  was  admitted  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  District  of 
Columbia,  in  1873,  and  three  years  later  was  refused  admission 
to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  If  I  had  time,  I 
could  read  to  you  some  interesting  extracts  from  the  opinion  of 
that  and  other  appellate  courts  in  this  connection.  It  was  not 
until  Congress  passed  appropriate  legislation  that  Mrs.  Lockwood 
was  admitted  to  practice  by  the  highest  court  in  the  land.  This 
was  in  1879.  In  one  of  our  previous  talks  you  favored  me  with 
an  extract  from  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Justice  Ryan,  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Wisconsin,  rendered  by  him  in  1875,  in  connection  with 
the  refusal  of  that  court  to  admit  Miss  R.  Lavinia  Goodell  to  the 
bar.  Among  the  pioneers  in  this  movement,  I  may  mention: 
Mary  Hall,  Lemma  Barkaloo,  Alta  M.  Hulett,  Ada  II.  Kopley, 


216  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

Clara  S.  Foltz,  and  Laura  De  Force  Gordon.  These  women 
were  all  admitted  to  practice  between  1870  and  1882.  There 
are  now  between  50  and  100  lady  lawyers  in  the  United  State-." 

"Evidently,  Matilda,  women  have  not  been  as  successful  in 
the  legal  profession  as  in  that  of  medicine,  and  I  am  not  at  all 
surprised  that  such  should  be  the  case,  for  the  arguments  which 
can  be  made  in  favor  of  lady  physicians  do  not  apply  to  lady 
attorneys.  Women  are  almost  universally  deficient  in  the 
qualities  which  are  essential  in  a  good  lawyer,  and  there  is  no  de- 
mand for  their  services  as  practitioners  at  the  bar.  As  Rousseau 
truly  said:  'The  research  for  abstract  and  speculative  truths,  for 
principles,  for  axioms  in  the  sciences,  for  all  that  tends  to 
generalize  ideas,  is  not  the  province  of  women;  their  studies  ought 
all  to  refer  to  practice. '  ' 

"Don't  you  think,  Edward,  that  women  should  qualify  them- 
selves to  defend,  protect,  and  champion  their  unfortunate  or  err- 
ing sisters  in  the  courts  of  law?  If  female  instead  of  male 
lawyers  were  to  take  charge  of  this  class  of  legal  business,  the 
'coarse  jest  and  cruel  laugh  so  proverbial  in  social  iinpurity 
cases'  would  soon  be  things  of  the  past." 

"I  think,"  replied  Mr.  Notion,  "that  it  would  be  much 
better  if  women  would  qualify  themselves  to  keep  out  of  such 
cases.  The  deserving  woman  who  is  unfortunate  enough  to  be 
involved  in  some  unclean  litigation,  seldom  lacks  male  defenders, 
and  is  rarely  subjected  to  any  avoidable  humiliation  or  shame." 

"  One  of  the  most  interesting  cases  I  know  of,  Edward,  in  con- 
nection with  the  advent  of  women  into  the  legal  profession,  is  that 
of  Col.  C.  K.  Pier,  of  Madison,  Wisconsin,  who  with  his  wife 
and  their  three  daughters  are  widely  celebrated  as  the  Pier  family 
of  lawyers.  They  all  practice  law  together.  And  now  a  closing 
Avord  about  the  association  of  these  women  of  the  law.  Their 
first  organization  was  called  the  'Equity  Club,'  and  was  formed 
in  1886  by  the  women  students  and  graduates  of  the  law  depart- 
ment of  the  University  of  Michigan.  Another  association,  called 
'  Woman's  International  Bar  Association,'  was  organized  in 
1888;  and  you  are  of  course  familiar  with  the  history  of  the 
'Portia  Club,'  in  San  Francisco." 

"Matilda,  what  have  you  to  say  about  women  in  art,  music, 
science,  government,  and  the  pulpit  ? ' ' 

"If  I  had  time,  Edward,  I  could  say  a  great  deal  about  them. 
So  far  as  art  is  concerned,  it  is  sufficient  to  refer  to  Rosa  Bonheur, 


PROGRESS    IN    THE   PROFESSIONS.  217 

the  famous  uninml  painter,  and  to  say  that  there  are  hundreds  of 
bright  and  successful  lady  portrait  painters  in  the  different  parts 
of  this  country.  In  decorative  art  there  are  legions  of  talented 
\vomen  who  are  earning  large  compensation." 

"Speaking  of  Rosa  Bouheur,"  said  Mr.  Notion,  "  reminds  me 
of  Landseer,  her  distinguished  male  rival  in  the  delineation  of 
animals,  who,  when  asked  why  he  did  not  propose  marriage  to 
her,  replied  that  he  could  never  be  willing  to  live  with  one  who 
had  surpassed  him  in  his  own  department  of  art." 

' '  I  wonder  that  he  was  willing  to  acknowledge  her  superiority, ' ' 
said  Mrs.  Notion.  "Men  are  generally  so  conceited  that  I  am 
not  at  all  surprised  that  you  should  consider  his  case  a  remark- 
able one.  But  in  the  realm  of  music,  we  have  won  many 
notable  triumphs,  and  I  could  name  a  score  of  women  who  have 
held  vast  audiences  spellbound  by  their  marvelous  vocal  powers." 

"True,  Matilda,  but  none  of  the  great  composers  have  been 
women.  All  the  higher  oratorios  and  symphonies,  like  the  great 
paintings  and  sculptures,  have  been  the  products  of  men.  So, 
too,  in  their  mastery  of  musical  instruments,  men  have  had  no 
female  rivals  worthy  of  the  name.  And  yet  in  the  field  of  music 
and  art  both  sexes  have  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  unlimited  com- 
petition during  all  the  ages.  Nor  should  we  forget  the  law  in 
accordance  with  which  energy,  vitality,  and  talent,  when  sup- 
pressed in  one  direction,  will  manifest  themselves  in  greater  force 
along  the  lines  of  freedom  from  restraint.  This  being  so,  female 
talent,  from  the  mere  fact  that  it  was  so  greatly  restricted  in  other 
spheres,  should  have  accomplished  its  grandest  achievements  in 
the  realms  of  music  and  art." 

"Women  have  not  been  free  in  any  direction,  Edward,  and 
hence  your  conclusion  falls  with  your  premise.  In  science  my 
sisters  are  showing  their  powers  in  many  departments.  Miss 
Margaivtta  ] 'aimer  and  Maria  Mitchell  are  well-known  astrono- 
mers, and  the  latter  received  a  gold  medal  from  the  king  of 
Denmark  for  her  discovery  of  the  comet  of  1847.  Other  dis- 
tinguished women  scientists  are  Miss  Jacobs,  of  the  Massachusetts 
Institute  of  Technology,  Miss  Chevalier,  professor  of  chemistry 
at  the  Woman's  Medical  College  of  New  York,  who  has  per- 
formed difficult  chemical  researches  on  nerve  tissue;  and  Mrs. 
Wilder,  who  assists  her  husband  in  his  laboratory  for  comparative 
anatomy,  at  Ithaca,  New  York.  Philippa  Fawcctt  not  many 
years  since  far  outstripped  all  her  male  competitors  at  the  Cam- 


218  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

bridge  examinations,  and  ranked  400  marks  above  the  senior 
wrangler.  Mrs.  Franklin,  formerly  Christine  Ladd,  was  made 
a  fellow  in  the  mathematical  department  of  the  Johns  Hopkins 
University,  and  has  done  remarkable  work  in  mathematics, 
logic,  and  physics;  Songa  Kowalewski,  the  gifted  young  Russian 
scientist,  was  appointed  to  a  full  professorship  at  the  University 
of  Stockholm  in  1884.  She  died  while  still  young." 

"Possibly  her  intense  mental  activity  was  too  much  for  her 
physical  strength,"  suggested  Mr.  Notion. 

' '  Perhaps  so,  Edward.  If  so,  she  has  had  innumerable  male 
predecessors.  Mrs.  Susanna  Gage  is  a  microscopist  of  recognized 
ability,  and  iMiss  Julia  Platt  has  published  the  results  of  her 
morphological  studies,  in  the  Journal  of  Morphology,  and  in 
German  anatomical  journals.  Other  noted  scientific  women  are: 
Dr.  Francis  Hoggan,  Marianne  North,  and  Miss  Eleanor  A. 
Ormerod,  all  Englishwomen.  They  have  won  fame  in  the 
respective  fields  of  microscopical  anatomy,  botany,  and  entomology. 
Madame  Ragotzin,  a  Russian  lady,  is  deeply  versed  in  the  science 
of  Chaldaic  and  Assyrian  inscriptions.  I  might  prolong  this  list 
almost  indefinitely,  but  I  have  said  enough  to  show  that  women 
are  capable  of  winning  distinction  in  all  departments  of  science. 
So  far  as  women  in  the  pulpit  are  concerned,  I  need  only  say 
that  since  1856,  when  the  Universalists  recognized  their  right  to 
preach,  they  have  been  rapidly  gaining  ground,  and  the  latest 
statistics  I  have  at  hand  show  that  lady  ministers  are  distributed 
as  follows  among  the  denominations:  Universalists,  36;  Uni- 
tarians, 19;.  Free-will  Baptists,  26;  Congregatioualists,  12.  Miss 
Shaw,  who  so  ably  advocated  female  suffrage  in  this  state  in 
1896,  is  an  ordained  minister  in  the  Protestant  Methodist  Church. 
So,  Edward,  what  little  point  there  once  was  in  Samuel  Johnson's 
rude  jest,  is  now  destroyed.  That  great  man  said:  'A  woman 
preacher  is  like  a  dog  walking  on  his  hind  legs;  it  is  not  well 
done,  but  you  are  surprised  to  find  it  done  at  all.'  But  I  don't 
suppose  you  are  in  favor  of  admitting  women  to  the  pulpit  under 
any  circumstances." 

"There  you  are  mistaken,  my  dear.  If  a  woman  has  the 
requisite  gifts  and  graces,  and  can  give  satisfactory  evidence  that 
she  is  called  to  preach,  1  would  be  the  last  one  to  throw  a  single 
obstacle  in  her  way.  But,  while  I  would  not  legislate  against 
women  preachers  as  a  class,  or  make  them  legally  ineligible  for 
the  ministry,  I  am  very  firmly  convinced  that  only  in  rare 


PIKHiUKSS    IN    THE    PROFESSIONS.  219 

instances  are  they  adapted  to  this  exalted  calling,  or  so  situated 
that  they  can  do  such  work  without  neglecting  domestic  duties. 
The  married  woman  could  hardly  do  justice  to  a  pulpit  and 
properly  attend  to  her  family,  and  I  am  opposed  to  unmarried 
ministers,  be  they  men  or  women.  Hence,  I  conclude  that  as  a 
rule  men  will  be  called  upon  in  the  future  as  in  the  past  to  do 
most  of  the  public  preaching  of  the  gospel. ' ' 

"Before  we  quit,"  said  Mrs.  Notion,  "I  want  to  ask  you  just 
one  question,  and  that  is,  Do  you  think  women  should  be  admitted 
as  delegates  to  the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church?" 

' '  Certainly  I  do,  Matilda.  They  constitute  a  very  large  pro- 
portion of  the  membership  of  that  denomination,  do  a  large  share 
of  its  religious  and  charitable  work,  contribute  a  large  proportion 
of  the  money  which  supports  its  preachers,  presiding  elders, 
bishops,  editors,  missionaries,  etc.,  and  are  consequently  clearly 
entitled  from  every  standpoint  of  justice,  right,  and  expediency, 
to  full  participation  in  the  deliberations  of  the  great  body  which 
meets  once  in  every  quadrennium  as  the  representative  of  the 
denomination  of  which  you  speak." 

"I  am  satisfied,"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Notion.  "That  admission 
covers  a  multitude  of  your  sins,  and  I  think  I  shall  be  able  to 
sleep  better  to-night  because  you  have  made  it. ' ' 


Mr.  and  Mrs.  Notion  Discuss  Lawlessness  as  a 
Marked  Characteristic  of  This  Age. 

"  The  domestic  relations  precede,  and  in  our  present  existence  are 
worth  more  than  all  our  other  ties.  They  give  the  first  throh  to  the 
heart,  and  unseal  the  deep  fountains  of  its  love.  Home  is  the  chief 
school  of  human  virtue.  Its  responsibilities,  joys,  sorrows,  smiles,  tears, 
hopes,  and  solicitudes  form  the  chief  interests  of  human  life." — Channin;/. 

"While  the  phase  of  modern  life  which  I  now  intend  to  dis- 
cuss," said  Mr.  Notion,  "will  take  us  somewhat  beyond  our 
immediate  subject  of  woman,  still  in  many  of  its  aspects  it  bears 
so  strongly  upon  and  is  so  closely  related  to  it  that  what  I  have  to 
say  will  not  be  out  of  place.  It  strikes  me  that  perhaps  the  most 
significant  symptom  of  our  times  is  lawlessness. ' ' 

"Do  you  think,  Edward,  that  there  is  as  much  disregard  for 
law  now  as  there  was  in  other  ages?" 

"Possibly  not,  Matilda,  for  of  course  there  have  been  times 
when  the  checks  and  restraints  which  render  human  society  pos- 
sible, were  almost  entirely  obliterated,  and  every  man  was  a.  law 
unto  himself.  This  must  have  been  especially  true  of  the  ante- 
diluvians, and  was  conspicuously  the  case  in  the  days  of  the 
judges  of  Israel,  during  most  of  which  storm v  period  we  are 
assured  by  Holy  "Writ  that  there  was  no  king  in  those  days,  and 
every  man  did  that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes.  Lawless- 
ness also  characterized  the  decline  and  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
and  was  a  marked  feature  of  the  middle  ages.  ]>ut  for  the  past 
century  or  two  the  nations  which  constitute  Christendom  have 
prided  themselves,  and  with  some  justice,  on  the  law-abiding 
character  of  their  people;  and  the  conviction  lias  gradually 
deepened  among  tbe  inhabitants  of  civilized  lands  that  they  were 
so  habituated  to  obedience  to  authority,  and  that  without  external 
compulsion,  that  among  them  life,  liberty,  property,  and  other 
acknowledged  rights  of  the  individual,  were  measurably  safe. 
What  I  maintain  is  that  for  several  years  past  the  people  of 
Christendom,  and  especially  those  of  our  own  land,  have  been 

(220) 


LAWLESSNESS.  221 

losing  these  admirable1  characteristics,  and  rapidly  relapsing  into 
lawlessness." 

"Edward,  you  really  surprise  me,  for  this  assertion  is  diamet- 
rically opposed  to  the  declarations  of  the  pulpit,  the  press,  and 
the  university,  as  well  as  to  the  spirit  of  our  entire  literature." 

"I  know  it,  Matilda,  and  I  explain  it  by  the  fact  that  until 
lately  there  was  a  real  advance  along  these  lines,  but  I  believe 
that  in  recent  years  this  progress  has  ceased,  and  that  retrogres- 
sion has  taken  place.  It  is  very  difficult,  however,  for  a  people 
who  are  deteriorating  in  any  way  to  realize  that  fact,  for  a  decline 
in  conduct  is  always  due  to  a  decline  in  moral  standards,  and  it 
is  quite  possible  for  a  race  to  become  demoralized,  and  yet  at  the 
same  time  to  flatter  itself  with  the  thought  that  it  is  making  sub- 
stantial progress." 

"I  do  not  know  as  I  altogether  understand  this  last  proposi- 
tion, Edward." 

"What  I  mean,  Matilda,  is  that  as  the  ideals  of  nations 
become  lower,  that  very  fact  makes  such  nations  incapable  of 
perceiving  their  own  decadence,  for  the  margin  between  their 
standards  and  their  conduct  is  no  greater  than  it  was  when  the 
standards  were  higher." 

' '  In  what  ways  does  this  increase  of  lawlessness  manifest  itself?  " 
inquired  Mrs.  Notion. 

' '  Their  name  is  legion, ' '  responded  Mr.  Notion.  ' '  First,  it 
finds  expression  in  the  family,  which  I  consider  the  very  basis  of 
all  society  and  government.  The  wife  no  longer  deems  herself 
subject  to  her  husband,  or  subordinate  to  him  in  any  way.  If 
he  undertakes  to  assert  his  authority  as  the  head  of  the  family, 
she  resists  him,  and  unseemly  quarrels  result." 

"But  you  well  know,"  expostulated  Mrs.  Notion,  "that, 
although  I  consider  myself  your  equal  in  every  way,  I  recognize 
the  position  of  headship  with  which  man-made  law  invests  you, 
and  invariably  defer  to  your  judgment  when  any  otherwise 
irreconcilable  difference  occurs  between  us." 

"You  sometimes  do,  Matilda,  and  I  have  no  fault  to  find  with 
you  in  that  respect.  Please  remember  that  my  remarks  are  gen- 
eral in  their  character,  and  that  you  are  always  excepted,  unless 
specifically  included.  Of  course  there  are  multitudes  of  women 
who  still  recogni/c  this  dominance  of  their  husbands,  but  they  con- 
stitute merely  numerous  exceptions  to  the  rule,  which  is  as  I  state 
it.  These  quarrels  and  bickerings  cause  an  estrangement  between 


222  J>OMKSTIC    1)1  IC1.S. 

the  spouses,  and  as  an  inevitable  result  the  courts  of  the  land  are 
filled  with  men  and  women  who  seek  divorces.  In  the  majority 
of  cases,  however,  the  mismated  couples  do  not  attempt  to  secure 
a  legal  separation,  but  cover  up  their  disagreements  as  well  as 
possible,  and  live  on  in  all  degrees  of  misery.  Some  are  so 
deeply  attached  that  these  conflicts  are  of  rare  occurrence,  and 
they  get  along  fairly  well.  Others  quarrel  and  speedily  effect  a 
reconciliation,  which  is  soon  followed  by  another  quarrel,  and  so 
on  ad  infinitum.  In  the  periods  between  their  feuds  they  asso- 
ciate on  terms  of  friendliness  and  possibly  real  affection.  Others, 
as  the  result  of  a  long  series  of  these  domestic  duels,  become 
permanently  estranged,  and  merely  live  together  for  the  sake  of 
appearances,  or  on  account  of  their  children.  Thus  you  see, 
Matilda,  as  one  consequence  of  the  advanced  ideas  of  American 
women,  the  homes  of  the  country  are  being  destroyed,  and  law- 
lessness is  cultivated  in  the  very  places  \\nere  its  opposite  should 
be  most  sedulously  and  jealously  fostered  and  preserved." 

' '  I  fear,  Edward,  that  you  are  a  little  inconsistent  in  all  this, 
for  I  distinctly  remember  you  to  have  stated  in  one  of  our 
talks  that  a  large  proportion  of  American  men  were  ruled  by 
domineering  wives." 

"Very  true,  Matilda,  but  that  does  not  at  all  militate  against 
what  1  now  maintain.  These  husbands,  though  deprived  of  their 
proper  authority,  and  brought  beneath  the  rule  of  a  domestic 
rebel,  chafe  under  the  yoke  of  servitude,  and  frequently  make 
desperate  efforts  to  recover  their  lost  dominion.  But  the  inev- 
itable result  of  this  perversion  of  the  natural  order  of  things,  is 
that  the  children,  where  there  are  any,  grow  up  without  any 
respect  for  either  parent,  and  with  feelings  of  the  utmost  contempt 
for  any  restraint  which  does  not  manifest  itself  in  the  form  of 
physical  force. ' ' 

"Do  you  mean  to  say,  Edward,  that  the  prevailing  disobedi- 
ence to  parents  is  due  to  the  assertion  by  married  women  of  their 
innate  equality  with  their  husbands?" 

"Indeed  I  do,"  replied  Mr.  Notion.  "When  children  are 
reared  in  an  atmosphere  of  anger,  faultfinding,  mutual  recrimi- 
nations between  husband  and  wife,  and  constant  contempt  on  the 
part  of  their  mother  of  their  father's  legitimate  and  proper 
authority,  they  will  learn  to  share  her  scorn,  and  will  despise  and 
disobey  the  paternal  commands  whenever  they  dare  to  do  so." 

"But  how  about  the  mother?"  inquired  .Mrs.  Notion,  with 
some  appearance  of  anxiety. 


LAWLESSNESS  223 

' '  She  will  be  both  disliked  and  despised  by  her  children,  for 
they  will  instinctively  feel  that  she  has  forfeited  her  true  womanly 
position,  and  intruded  herself  into  a  place  which  she  can  not  fill.. 
Unless  she  is  unusually  strong-minded  and  imperious,  she  will 
completely  fail  to  enforce  the  obedience  of  her  children,  for  by 
destroying  their  father's  natural  influence  over  them,  she  has 
deprived  herself  of  that  assistance  without  which  the  vast  majority 
of  mothers  are  unable  to  secure  the  observance  of  their  parental 
commands." 

' '  Here  I  think  I  see  another  inconsistency  in  your  argument, ' ' 
exclaimed  Mrs.  Notion  with  an  air  of  triumph.  ' '  You  are  now 
assuming  that  the  woman  who  is  strong-minded  enough  to  resist 
all  efforts  of  her  husband  to  assert  his  authority,  is  too  weak  to 
make  her  own  children  mind  her.  That  statement,  in  my  opin- 
ion, involves  a  palpable  contradiction." 

' '  From  a  superficial  standpoint  I  admit  that  it  so  appears, ' ' 
said  Mr.  Notion,  ' '  but  it  is  not  by  her  strength  of  character  that 
the  rebellious  wife  reverses  the  legitimate  order  of  things  in  the 
family  life.  She  does  it  by  scolding  and  nagging  and  abusing 
the  'partner  of  her  joys,'  by  cross  looks,  and  hateful  glances,  by 
petulance  and  sulking,  by  resorting  to  every  mean  and  petty 
device  to  make  the  poor  fellow  miserable  in  his  own  home.  After 
a  hard  day's  work  he  seeks  welcome,  rest,  and  social  converse  in 
the  bosom  of  his  family.  But  he  is  received  coldly  and  with 
forbidding  aspect.  All  his  attempts  to  brighten  and  cheer  the 
home  atmosphere  are  dismal  failures.  He  is  criticised  and  sneered 
at,  and  finds  himself  unable  to  do  anything  in  a  satisfactory 
manner.  His  wife  gives  full  vent  to  her  contempt.  His  children 
show  their  scorn  for  him  in  the  very  expression  of  their  faces,  and 
he  begins  to  despise  himself.  If  he  be  a  desperate  man ,  without 
much  regard  for  his  family,  he  will  either  quarrel  violently  with 
his  wife  and  widen  the  breach,  or  leave  the  house  as  soon  as 
possible.  But  if  he  be  of  an  affectionate,  kindly  nature  he  will 
relinquish  his  rights  in  the  premises,  and,  although  keenly  con- 
scious that  his  wife  is  in  fault,  he  will  also  realize  that  she  is 
incapable  of  making  any  such  admission,  and  at  last  he  will 
purchase  a  short  armistice  by  making  humiliating  overtures,  and 
acknowledging  his  guilt,  when  he  well  knows  himself  to  be 
entirely  innocent.  You  see,  Matilda,  a  man  is  no  match  for  a 
woman  in  a  game  of  this  kind,  and  the  better  and  nobler  the  man 
the  more  completely  will  lie  be  at  her  mercy.  His  very  patience 


224  DOMESTIC    DUKI.-. 

will  be  proof  of  her  petulance.  In  the  words  of  Joubert,  '  Noth- 
ing does  so  much  honor  to  a  woman  as  her  patience,  and  nothing 
does  her  so  little  as  the  patience  of  her  husband.' ' 

"The  Bible  says,  Edward,  that  a  soft  answer  ttirneth  away 
wrath,  and  I  see  no  reason  why  it  would  not  turn  away  the  wrath 
of  an  offended  or  even  an  unreasonable  woman.  It  takes  two  to 
conduct  a  quarrel,  and  you  will  find  it  extremely  difficult  to  make 
me  believe  that  in  any  case  the  husband  can  be  as  innocent  and 
inoffending,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  wife  as  thoroughly  mali- 
cious, hateful,  and  contemptible,  on  the  other,  as  you  would  make 
it  appear.  Your  remarks  are  also  objectionable  as  indicating  a 
deep-seated  prejudice  against  women  generally,  and  as  leaving 
room  for  the  inference  that  your  own  matrimonial  experience  has 
been  peculiarly  unfortunate.  I  do  not  think  I  have  been  the 
female  fury  which  you  so  graphically  depict,  nor  am  I  willing  to 
believe  that  you  are  of  that  opinion;  but,  if  any  one  else  were  to 
hear  your  remarks,  he  would  inevitably  conclude  that  I  must  be 
one  of  the  worst  viragoes  that  ever  disgraced  this  planet. ' ' 

"If  my  words  have  any  such  implications,  Matilda,  I  am  truly 
sorry  I  ever  uttered  them;  for,  as  I  have  over  and  over  again 
assured  you,  my  admiration  for  true  and  normal  womanhood  is 
unbounded,  and  so  far  as  you  are  concerned  individually,  I  feel 
that  you  are  the  sweetest,  noblest,  and  most  devoted  of  wives; 
that  you — " 

"There,  there,  Edward,  I  was  not  fishing  for  flattery.  Please 
do  not  go  to  extremes  in  the  expression  of  your  appreciation.  I 
do  not  claim  to  be  a  paragon.  I  merely  wished  to  call  your  atten- 
tion to  the  inferences  which  were  legitimately  deducible  from  your 
statements. ' ' 

"I  am  very  glad  that  you  did,  my  dear,  for  no  one  can  go 
farther  than  I  in  my  respect  for  woman.  In  her  proper  sphere, 
and  in  the  normal  exercise  of  her  beautiful  virtues,  she  is  the 
conservator  of  morality,  the  guardian  angel  of  the  home,  and 
the  very  mainspring  of  all  that  is  gentle,  loving,  and  pure  in  our 
humanity.  It  is  because  of  my  admiration  for  your  sex,  and 
intense  appreciation  of  its  glorious  characteristics,  that  I  protest 
so  strenuously  against  everything  which  has  a  tendency  to  mislead 
woman,  or  to  seduce  her  from  the  only  path  in  which  she  can 
attain  her  highest  destiny  and  greatest  usefulness." 

"All  right,  Edward,  you  have  now  put  yoursdC  right,  and  I 
am  anxious  to  have  you  continue  the  statement  of  your  views  on 


LAWLESSNESS.  225 

this  interesting  subject.  But  first  let  me  remind  you  of  Fuller's 
wise  advice  to  husbands:  '  First  get  an  absolute  conquest  over  thy- 
self, and  thou  wilt  easily  govern  thy  wife. ' ' 

' '  I  was  trying  to  show,  Matilda,  that  only  in  the  normally 
constituted  family  can  the  children  be  imbued  with  sentiments  of 
reverence  and  filial  love,  and  that  any  deviation  from  the  right 
standard  of  home  government  will  manifest  itself  to  a  greater 
or  less  extent  in  the  unruliness  and  turbulence  of  sons  and 
daughters. ' ' 

"I  am  willing  to  concede,  Edward,  that  if  the  parents  do  not 
respect  themselves  and  treat  each  other  with  proper  deference, 
their  children  will  not  hold  them  in  affection  and  veneration,  and 
will  manifest  a  spirit  of  insubordination.  But  I  do  not  agree 
with  you  as  to  the  husband  being  a  dictator  or  despot.  To  my 
mind  the  ideal  family  is  not  one  where  the  wife  and  children  have 
to  meekly  bow  to  the  stern  authority  of  a  male  monarch,  but  one 
where  all  is  love,  where  the  children  obey  without  physical  com- 
pulsion, and  where  husband  and  wife  live  together  in  peace  and 
unity,  bearing  and  forbearing,  willingly  sacrificing  each  to  the 
other,  and  gladly  doing  their  utmost  to  promote  their  mutual 
comfort,  happiness,  and  welfare." 

"You  have  put  it  well,  Matilda,  and  I  believe  with  you  that 
love  should  be  the  ruling  motive  in  all  the  domestic  relations. 
But  there  must  be  some  central  authority,  some  court  of  appeal,  to 
whom  vexed  questions  and  apparently  conflicting  interests  may  be 
submitted.  This  governmental  head  should  not  be  self-assertive, 
or  unnecessarily  conspicuous,  but,  nevertheless,  it  should  and  does 
exist  in  every  well-ordered  home..  In  families  where  it  is  not 
to  be  found,  there  is  a  sort  of  domestic  chaos,  mitigated  and 
ameliorated,  it  may  be,  by  much  affection  and  self-denial,  but 
always  menacing  the  permanent  prosperity  and  happiness  of  the 
home.  In  fact,  the  general  consciousness  that  appeal  can  be  made 
to  paternal  authority  tends  very  greatly  to  produce  harmony  and 
peace  in  the  family." 

'  'Another  question  I  want  to  ask, ' '  said  Mrs.  Notion,  ' '  is,  How 
in  the  world  have  you  managed  to  obtain  all  this  information? 
One  would  think  from  the  confident  manner  in  which  you  assert 
the  conditions  which  exist  in  American  families,  that  you  had 
full  and  free  access  to  every  home  in  the  land.  But,  as  I  happen 
to  know  that  your  opportunities  for  personal  observation  of  these 
matters  have  been  quite  restricted,  I  am  curious  to  learn  where 
and  how  you  derive  all  this  knowledge." 
15 


226  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

"In  the  first  place,  Matilda,  I  have  acquired  many  of  my 
facts  from  you." 

"From  me!"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Notion  with  visible  surprise. 
"How  do  you  make  that  out?" 

' '  Your  opportunities,  Matilda,  of  ascertaining  the  actual  facts 
with  reference  to  many  American  families,  have  been  exception- 
ally good.  You  have  been  on  terms  of  intimacy  with  a  large 
number  of  good  ladies,  who  have  confided  in  you  the  secrets  of 
their  homes,  and,  like  a  dutiful  wife,  you  have  placed  those  secrets 
in  my  keeping,  in  order  that  they  might  be  doubly  secure.  As 
you  well  know,  these  revelations  have  convinced  us  both  that  the 
majority  of  the  people  of  your  acquaintance  do  not  live  happily  in 
their  homes,  and  that  as  a  rule  the  wives  chafe  under  the  slightest 
appearance  of  domestic  restraint,  and  feel  that  the  duties  of  the 
household  are  tiresome  and  irksome. ' ' 

' '  But  these  cases,  Edward,  are  comparatively  few  in  number, 
and  certainly  do  not  justify  you  in  assuming  that  they  are  fairly 
representative  of  prevailing  conditions  in  the  country  generally." 

"Admitted,  Matilda,  but  I  have  many  other  sources  of  infor- 
mation. The  newspapers  reveal  much  of  the  real  domestic 
life  of  the  people,  although  I  am  well  aware  that  all  their  state- 
ments must  be  taking  cum  grano  sails,  for  in  their  eager  desire  to 
satisfy  a  vitiated  public  taste,  they  greatly  color  and  exaggerate 
their  narratives  of  marital  infelicity.  Much  is  also  to  be  learned 
from  the  court  records,  for  in  addition  to  the  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  divorce  cases  which  have  crowded  the  calendars  of 
American  courts  during  the  past  quarter  of  a  century,  there  is  a 
vast  mass  of  other  litigation  that  throws  a  powerful  light  upon 
existing  domestic  conditions'  For  instance,  the  innumerable 
\vill  contests  which  vex  the  probate  judges,  serve  well  to  indicate 
the  actual  history  of  multitudes  of  American  homes." 

"But  there  are  few,  Edward,  who  have  access  to  all  these 
records." 

' '  Most  of  them  are  public,  Matilda,  and  I  have  made  a 
thoughtful  study  of  them  for  years,  for  I  have  long  been  deeply 
interested  in  these  questions.  Nor  are  our  own  opportunities  of 
individual  observation  to  be  despised.  If  you  will  look  and 
listen  with  the  object  of  ascertaining  the  relations  which  exist 
between  the  men  and  women  whom  you  meet  at  close  range  in 
society,  or  at  a  longer  distance  in  the  theater,  lecture- room,  church, 
or  other  place  of  public  assemblage,  you  will  be  astonished  at  the 


LA\VLESSM>-.  227 

revelations  which  reach  you.  And  beyond  all  these  are  even 
wider  opportunities  for  such  investigation.  In  the  streets  and 
public  conveyances  you  will  meet  thousands  of  people,  who  will 
not  be  able  to  wholly  conceal  from  you  the  secrets  of  their  lives 
and  characters.  By  watchful  attention  to  tone,  expression, 
glance,  and  gesture  you  will  gain  a  deep  insight  into  the  manner 
of  liie  and  disposition  of  the  men  and  women  who  pass  and  repass 
you  daily  in  the  journey  of  life.  You  will  gradually  come  to 
recognize  thousands  of  people  with  whom  you  have  not  a  speak- 
ing acquaintance,  and  to  know  something  of  their  nature  and 
conduct  And  you  may  rest  assured,  Matilda,  that  the  woman 
who  bosses  her  husband  at  home  will  assume  an  air  of  authority 
toward  him  in  public,  and  that  the  man  who  lords  it  over  his 
wife  at  the  fireside,  will  not  be  able  to  so  mask  his  true  self  as  to 
treat  her  with  due  consideration  anywhere  else." 

"I  have  noticed,"  remarked  Mrs.  Notion,  "that  when  we 
ride  together  in  a  street-car,  I  can  overhear  much  more  of  the 
talk  of  the  other  occupants  of  the  car  than  you  can." 

"Yes,  your  sense  of  hearing  is  sharper  than  mine,  and  I 
have  gleaned  much  information  of  value  through  the  medium 
of  your  auditory  organs.  You,  however,  have  not  treasured  up 
the  facts  of  which  you  thus  became  cognizant,  or  considered  them 
in  their  bearing  upon  the  social  problems  which  we  are  now 
discussing.  For  you  they  have  possessed  but  a  passing  interest, 
and  naturally  have  been  soon  forgotten.  I  might  narrate  a  vast 
number  of  street  incidents  which  have  come  to  my  notice,  and 
which  throw  light  upon  our  subject,  but  I  forbear.  I  have 
frequently  seen  wives  conduct  themselves  rudely  and  contemp- 
tuously toward  their  husbands  in  public  places.  Sometimes  they 
have  spoken  in  angry  tones,  and  on  other  occasions  they  have 
sulked  and  refused  to  converse.  Kot  long  since  1  witnessed  a 
colloquy  between  an  elderly  gentleman  and  lady  at  a  railroad 
station.  Their  two  telescopic  satchels  lay  on  the  ground  beside 
them,  and  he  ventured  the  remark  that  one  was  a  little  larger 
than  the  other.  As  a  matter  of  fact  they  were  of  equal  si/.e,  but 
the  contents  of  one,  being  greater  than  those  of  the  other,  gave 
it  larger  dimensions.  She,  ignoring  this  inequality  of  bulk, 
sharply  contradicted  him,  and  asserted  that  they  were  exactly  the 
same  six.e.  He  timidly  reiterated  his  opinion,  but  she  with  much 
firmness  and  decision  repeated  that  they  were  of  equal  dimensions, 
and  silenced  him  with  a  single  frowning  glance." 


228  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

"Well,  don't  you  think  she  was  right  in  her  assertion?"  in- 
quired Mrs.  Notion. 

' '  That  is  not  the  point,  Matilda.  They  were  both  right. 
The  trouble  was  that  they  regarded  the  matter  from  different 
standpoints.  But  I  wish  briefly  to  call  your  attention  to  other 
phases  of  lawlessness,  all  of  which  I  am  sure  result  from  the 
lawlessness  of  the  home.  This  spirit  manifests  itself  in  the  various 
religious  denominations,  and  the  laws  of  the  church  are  constantly 
ignored  by  the  great  majority  of  members." 

' '  Yes,  I  have  noticed  that  some  of  the  rules  of  our  church  are 
either  evaded  or  disobeyed,  but  I  am  sure,  Edward,  that  the 
ministers  and  laymen  of  our  denomination  carefully  observe  the 
great  majority  of  ecclesiastical  regulations." 

"Certainly,  Matilda,  they  gladly  obey  those  which  meet  with 
their  approval.  But  it  is  just  that  tendency  of  which  I  complain. 
That  is  the  very  essence  of  lawlessness.  The  chief  of  police 
decides  what  ordinances  he  favors,  and  rigidly  enforces  them;  the 
others  he  permits  to  pass  into  a  condition  of  innocuous  desuetude, 
to  borrow  a  euphonistic  expression  from  ex-President  Cleveland. 
A  similar  policy  is  pursued  by  countless  other  public  officials,  and 
as  a  result,  the  laws  of  the  country  are  passing  into  general  con- 
tempt. Great  corporations  hire  attorneys  for  the  especial  purpose 
of  enabling  them  to  break  the  law  with  impunity.  They  pay 
them  yearly  retainers,  and  the  poor  man  who  becomes  involved 
in  litigation  with  them  has  very  little  chance  to  succeed,  no 
matter  how  just  Jiis  cause,  for  his  wealthy  and  powerful  opponents 
will  take  all  sorts  of  unconscionable  advantages,  and  by  long- 
continued  delays  will  so  exhaust  him  that  he  will  either  compro- 
mise for  a  song,  or  altogether  abandon  his  cause  of  action. 
The  large  employers  of  labor  violate  the  laws  of  the  land  Avhon, 
though  they  have  made  weekly  or  monthly  contracts  with  their 
employees,  they  suddenly  discharge  vast  numbers  of  them  with- 
out notice.  This  is  called  a  lock-out.  They  are  also  wilfully 
defiant  of  the  law  when  they  black-list  their  servants,  and  thus 
conspire  together  to  deprive  them  of  all  opportunity  of  earning  a 
livelihood.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  scores  of  thousands  of  American 
workmen  have  been  boycotted  in  this  way  by  corporations. 
Many  of  them  are  wandering  as  vagabonds  in  the  land  of  their 
birth.  Many  are  criminals  because  they  can  not  earn  their  living, 
and  many  are  only  able  to  obtain  employment  because  they  have 
assumed  fictitious  names  and  remove  to  sections  of  the  country 


LAWLESSNESS.  229 

remote  from  their  former  homes.  The  mighty  trusts  which  have 
sprung  up  during  the  past  few  years  are  contrary  to  law,  and 
do  violence  to  well-established  legal  principles,  when  they  com- 
bine to  limit  production  in  order  that  their  profits  may  be  in- 
creased at  the  expense  of  the  helpless  consumer." 

"But  how  about  the  laboring  men  of  the  country,  Edward? 
Are  they  more  sinned  against  than  sinning  in  these  respects  ? ' ' 

"I  am  sorry  to  say,  Matilda,  that  they,  in  the  majority  of 
cases,  are  just  as  ready  to  disobey  the  law  as  are  their  employers. 
They  so  time  their  strikes  as  to  take  their  employer  unawares, 
and  at  the  greatest  possible  disadvantage.  They  conspire  together 
to  destroy  his  business,  and,  while  they  demand  a  higher  wage, 
they  do  their  utmost  to  impair  his  ability  to  pay  them  any  wage 
at  all.  The  strike  is  essentially  warfare,  and,  as  is  usual  when 
fierce  conflicts  are  waged,  the  non-combatants  have  a  hard  time 
of  it.  One  of  the  most  noticeable  features  of  most  of  these 
struggles  between  corporations  and  their  servants,  is  the  utter 
disregard  on  both  sides  of  the  interests  and  convenience  of  the 
general  public." 

"I  have  noticed  too,  Edward,  that  the  striking  workmen 
often  take  forcible  possession  of  the  property  of  their  employer, 
and  that  they  do  not  hesitate  to  beat  or  kill  the  poor  fellows  who 
wish  to  take  their  vacant  places." 

"True,  my  dear,  and  all  this  is  rank  lawlessness,  for  no 
arguments,  however  specious  or  ingenious,  can  justify  any  set  of 
men  in  interfering  with  the  right  of  other  men  to  earn  an  honest 
living,  to  work  for  any  wages  that  satisfy  them,  and  to  accept 
employment  from  any  one  that  offers  it.  But  these  are  only  a 
few  of  the  phases  of  the  prevailing  disregard  for  all  restraint. 
Bands  of  murderous  White  Caps  in  different  parts  of  the  country 
do  their  dastardly  deeds  under  the  cover  of  darkness,  and  trample 
underfoot  the  most  precious  rights  of  American  citizens.  Angry 
mobs  take  the  law  into  their  own  hands,  and  wreak  their  ven- 
geance upon  men  whose  guilt  has  not  been  proved.  Several 
hundred  thousand  saloon-keepers  habitually  and  wantonly  break 
the  laws.  These  licensed  venders  of  liquid  damnation  are  law- 
less all  the  time  and  everywhere,  and,  as  some  one  has  said,  the 
only  way  to  prevent  the  saloons  from  violating  legal  enactments 
is  to  destroy  them.  And  then,  let  us  turn  in  another  direction, 
and  contemplate  the  crimes  against  the  ballot  which  are  perpe- 
trated all  over  the  land  at  every  election.  Voters  are  bribed, 


230  DOMESTIC    DULLS. 

tally  lists  are  stolen,  ballots  are  mutilated  or  changed,  honest 
citizens  are  cheated  out  of  their  votes  by  criminals  who  personate 
them  at  the  polls,  dead  men  are  registered  and  voted,  gangs 
of  political  thugs  and  strikers  are  colonized  and  made  to  vote 
in  close  districts;  and  in  numerous  other  ways  the  sovereignty  of 
the  people  is  tampered  with,  and  the  good  citizens  of  the  country 
are  prevented  from  recording  their  will.  The  fact  is  that  nearly 
every  professional  politician  is  a  law-breaker.  But  what  can  we 
expect  from  ordinary  men,  when  the  press  and  pulpit  so  fre- 
quently trample  underfoot  the  rights  of  human  beings?" 

"You  surprise  me,  Edward,  by  this  allusion  to  the  pulpit." 

"Of  course,"  explained  Mr.  Notion,  "the  majority  of  our 
clergymen  are  not  guilty  of  the  practice  of  which  I  am  about  to 
speak,  but  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  many  preachers  vie  with  the 
sensational  press  in  their  disregard  for  the  reputations  and  feel- 
ings of  citizens.  They  are  ready  at  all  times  to  believe  any 
scandalous  charges  which  are  brought  against  public  officials 
or  other  prominent  men,  and  give  them  the  widest  possible  pub- 
licity in  their  pulpits.  This  is  not  only  sinful,  but  is  a  ilagrant 
violation  of  the  law,  which  protects  a  pel-son's  reputation  as  well 
as  his  life  and  property.  I  have  very  little  confidence  in  any 
man  who  is  always  ready  to  believe  any  outrageous  accusation 
that  may  be  trumjK'd  up  against  another,  especially  if  that 
other  be  a  public  official  who  is  sworn  to  obey  and  enforce  the 
law.  It  seems  to  me  the  presumption  that  every  man  is  innocent 
until  his  guilt  is  proved,  ought  to  apply  with  added  force  to  the 
trusted  servants  of  the  people." 

"Now  don't  be  inconsistent,  Edward;  you  have  just  accused 
large  numbers  of  public  officials  of  lawless] n •.-.-. " 

"Very  true,  Matilda,  but  I  have  made  no  charges  against 
individuals.  I  am  expressing  now  my  opinion,  based  on  con- 
siderable evidence,  that  lawlessness  is  rite  among  the  officers  of 
the  law,  as  well  as  among  the  people  at  large.  The  Columbian 
Exposition  at  Chicago,  in  1893,  was  kept  open  on  Sundays  in 
wilful  violation  of  the  expros  conditions  of  the  Congressional 
grant  of  money.  The  law  requiring  the  deportation  of  eyery 
Chinaman  who  failed  to  register  within  a  certain  period,  was 
defied  by  the  large  majority  of  the  Chinese  residents  of  the 
Tinted  States,  and  yel  the  administ rat i ye  branch  of  the  federal 
government,  whose  solemn  duty  it  was  to  enforce  the  law,  abso- 
lutely refused  to  do  so,  and  persistently  contended  that  it  was 


LAWLESSNESS.  231 

unconstitutional,  until  at  last  its  validity  was  declared  by  the 
highest  court  in  the  land.  This,  too,  was  lawlessness.  One  more 
illustration  of  this  tendency  of  the  age,  and  I  am  done.  You 
read  of  international  law,  and  the  libraries  of  lawyers  are  full  of 
learned  treatises  on  this  subject.  And  yet  I  undertake  to  say 
that  so  far  as  the  six  leading  nations  of  Europe  are  concerned, 
there  is  no  international  law  which  they  pretend  to  observe,  other 
than  that  which  may  be  enacted  from  week  to  week  by  their 
lawless  will.  The  only  international  restraints  which  any  one  of 
these  powers  recognizes,  are  the  armies  and  navies  of  the  others. 
The  vital  question  with  each  of  these  '  Christian '  nations  is,  not 
what  the  principles  of  international  law  permit,  but  how  much 
territory  can  be  stolen  from  some  weak  country  without  incurring 
the  hostility  of  the  other  great  powers.  They  have  carved 
Africa,  and  divided  most  of  it  among  them.  They  have  seized 
large  areas  in  Asia,  and  are  now  dividing  China  among  them- 
selves. They  have  appropriated  the  islands  of  the  Pacific. 
England  shells  Cairo  and  establishes  a  protectorate  over  Egypt 
in  the  interests  of  her  bondholders.  She  seizes  the  custom  house 
of  Nicaragua  at  Corinto,  and  collects  what  she  claims  as  an 
indemnity. ' ' 

"By  the  way,  Edward,  did  you  notice  a  short  time  ago  how 
liberal  England  was  with  France?  She  generously  gave  that 
republic  a  large  area  of  land  in  Asia.  It  is  true  that  it  was  the 
property  of  another  nation,  but  England  had  coveted  it  so  long 
that  she  regarded  it  with  feelings  of  proprietorship,  and  felt  that 
she  had  made  a  great  sacrifice  in  relinquishing  it  to  France. 
But  don't  you  think,  Edward,  that  these  heathen  lands  are  better 
off  under  the  guardianship  of  the  civilized  nations  of  Europe?" 

"Your  question  is  an  interesting  one,"  replied  Mr.  Notion, 
"but  excuse  me  for  saying  that  it  is  not  germane  to  our  subject. 
Where  principle  is  involved,  we  have  no  business  with  consider- 
ations of  expediency.  The  robber  may  be  able  and  willing  to 
make  a  much  better  use  of  his  victim's  money  than  that  victim 
would  ever  think  of  doing.  Claude  Duval  stole  from  the  rich 
and  gave  to  the  poor.  There  are  multitudes  of  children  who 
would  be  much  better  off  in  the  families  of  other  persons  than 
with  their  own  parents,  and  yet  those  other  persons  are  not 
justified  because  of  that  fact  in  kidnapping  the  children." 

"You  may  be  right,"  said  Mrs.  Notion  doubtfully,  "and 
yet  when  I  reflect  upon  the  vast  blessings  which  have  been 


232  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

brought  to  the  people  of  India  by  British  rule,  I  feel  like  con- 
doning the  irregular  methods  by  which  English  dominion  of  that 
country  was  acquired.  But  before  we  leave  this  subject,  I  wish 
to  ask  to  what  cause  you  attribute  tne  restlessness,  license,  and 
lawlessness  which  you  claim  are  so  prevalent?" 

"Briefly,  Matilda,  they  have  their  origin  in  the  family.  The 
unruly  spirit  of  the  wife  communicates  itself  to  her  children, 
and  is  propagated  by  successive  waves  throughout  society.  The 
fact  is  that  the  prevailing  condition  of  affairs  is  remarkably 
similar  to  that  which  existed  among  the  Hebrews  in  the  days  of 
the  prophet  Isaiah,  who,  in  lamenting  the  degeneracy  of  the 
Jews,  said:  'As  for  my  people,  children  are  their  oppressors, 
and  women  rule  over  them.  O  my  people,  they  which  lead 
thee  cause  thee  to  err,  and  destroy  the  way  of  thy  paths.' 
Isaiah  3: 12." 

At  this  point  the  conversation  ceased,  and  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Notion  in  a  quiet  and  meditative  mood  began  their  preparations 
for  retiring. 


Mr.  and  Mrs.  Notion  Begin  to  Talk  about 
Woman's  Political  Rights. 

"  Seek  to  be  good,  but  aim  not  to  be  great; 
A  woman's  noblest  station  is  retreat; 
Her  fairest  virtues  fly  from  public  sight." 

— Lord  Lyttelton. 

"Now,"  said  Mrs.  Notion,  "we  have  reached  a  point  in  our 
talks  where  we  can  discuss  the  great  question  of  female  suffrage. 
You  have  not  expressed  yourself  definitely  upon  it  thus  far,  but 
I  am  afraid  from  the  tenor  of  your  remarks  that  you  will  oppose 
the  removal  of  woman's  political  disabilities,  and  I  have  worked 
so  long  and  so  hard  to  bring  about  this  grand  reform,  that  it 
would  be  a  great  grief  to  me  to  think  that  my  own  husband  was 
among  those  who  object  to  extending  to  the  wives  and  mothers 
of  the  land  their  natural  and  inherent  political  rights." 

"  Permit  me  to  suggest,"  said  Mr.  Notion,  "in  order  to  utilize 
our  time  to  the  best  possible  advantage  in  the  treatment  of  this 
interesting  branch  of  the  general  subject,  that  we  devote  three 
evenings  to  it,  and  so  classify  the  theme  that  each  evening  be 
spent  in  dealing  with  one  special  phase.  For  instance,  how 
would  it  do  if  we  were  to  confine  ourselves  to-night  to  the  mere 
statement  of  the  present  status  of  the  woman's  political  rights 
movement  in  different  parts  of  the  world  ?  ' ' 

"I  think  that  is  a  very  good  idea,  Edward." 

"And  then,"  continued  Mr.  Notion,  "you  might  present  your 
arguments  to-morrow  evening  in  favor  of  woman  suffrage,  and  I 
could  discuss  the  question  from  my  standpoint  in  our  next  talk." 

"I  am  sure,"  answered  Mrs.  Notion,  "that  that  will  be  an 
excellent  arrangement.  And  now  suppose  you  begin  this  even- 
ing's conversation." 

"As  we  have  seen,"  said  Mr.  Notion,  "women  have  no  rights 
worth  mentioning  outside  of  the  pale  of  Christendom,  and  in  most 
Christian  countries  their  rights  are  quite  limited.  The  Salic  law 
still  excludes  them  from  the  thrones  of  Italy,  Belgium,  Scandi-. 

(233) 


234  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

navia,  Luxemburg,  and  Roumauia,  and  from  the  highest  offices 
of  the  republic  of  France.  Among  the  Germanic  races,  women 
sometimes  reign,  and  are  admitted  to  the  enjoyment  of  communal 
rights." 

"Is  there  any  country  in  the  world,"  inquired  Mrs.  Notion, 
"where  women  have  been  admitted  to  full  participation  in  the 
elective  franchise  ?  ' ' 

"None  that  I  know  of,  Matilda.  Probably  the  nearest 
approach  to  it  outside  of  the  United  States,  is  in  the  Isle  of  Man, 
where,  since  1881,  the  female  owners  of  real  estate  valued  at  the 
annual  rental  of  four  pounds,  have  been  admitted  as  voters  for 
the  House  of  Keys.  This  is  the  lower  house,  and  has  twenty-four 
members. ' ' 

"  I  think,"  suggested  Mrs.  Notion,  "that  this  shows  a  remark- 
able deference  for  women,  especially  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the 
island  has  such  a  masculine  name. ' ' 

"Yes,  indeed,"  laughed  Mr.  Notion.  "But,  while  women 
have  not  been  successful  in  securing  full  participation  in  political 
affairs  in  any  country  in  Europe,  they  have  been  accorded  a 
partial  recognition,  and  there  is  a  strong  and  growing  tendency 
to  give  them  a  voice  in  educational  matters,  and  other  questions 
connected  with  local  self-government.  They  can  vote  on  local 
affairs  in  England  and  her  colonies,  Sweden,  Iceland,  Finland, 
Russia,  Prussia,  Saxony,  Brunswick,  and  the  rural  districts  in 
Austria.  They  have  the  school  franchise  in  Norway,  and  are 
eligible  to  school  administration  in  England,  Norway,  and  the 
capital  of  Sweden.  In  England,  Sweden,  and  Finland  they  can 
participate  in  poor-relief  administration.  In  Prussia,  Austria, 
and  Russia,  except  the  village  assemblies,  they  can  only  vote  by 
proxy.  In  the  other  countries  named  they  vote  in  person." 

"At  the  best,"  observed  Mrs.  Notion  somewhat  sadly,  "we 
receive  only  a  stingy  acknowledgment  of  our  rights  from  the  men 
of  any  country;  but  I  am  glad  to  say  that  here  in  the  United 
States  the  female  suffrage  movement  is  much  further  advanced 
than  it  is  anywhere  else  in  the  world.  In  Wyoming  we  have 
had  full  political  rights  ever  since  1870." 

"It  was  in  1869,  my  dear,  that  the  Legislature  of  that  territory 
adopted  woman  suffrage  as  a  joke,  and  gave  every  woman  resi- 
dent of  the  territory,  twenty-one  years  of  age,  the  right  to  vote  at 
all  elections,  and  to  hold  office.  The  Legislature  at  its  next 
session  passed  a  bill  repealing  this  law,  but  the  governor  vetoed 
it.  In  1890  the  territory  was  admitted  as  a  state,  and  'woman 


POLITICAL    NTATl'S    <>!•'    WOMEN.  235 

suffrage  went  into  the  Constitution.  To  this  Congress  made  no 
objection,  thus  admitting  that  female  suffrage  was  not  deemed  by 
that  body  to  be  incompatible  with  the  Federal  Constitution." 

"We  have  had  the  elective  franchise  in  Colorado  since  1893," 
continued  Mrs.  Notion.  "In  Kansas  we  have  a  large  voice  in 
municipal  elections,  although  in  1«S!)4,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  a  con- 
stitutional amendment  providing  for  woman  suffrage  was  defeated. 
The  constitution  of  the  new  state  of  Utah  accords  women  com- 
plete political  equality  with  men.  We  voted  for  some  time  in 
the  territory  of  Washington,  but  were  deprived  of  the  privilege 
by  a  decision  of  the  territorial  Supreme  Court. ' ' 

"Some  form  of  female  suffrage  exists  in  a  majority  of  the 
states,"  remarked  Mr.  Notion.  "It  is  chiefly,  however,  with 
reference  to  educational  matters  that  such  is  the  case.  The  states 
in  which  women  have  received  this  partial  political  recognition 
are:  Delaware,  Idaho,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Iowa,  Kentucky,  Mas- 
sachusetts, Michigan,  Minnesota,  Montana,  Nebraska,  New  Hamp- 
shire, New  Jersey,  North  Dakota,  Ohio,  Oklahoma,  Oregon, 
South  Dakota,  Texas,  Vermont,  Washington  and  Wisconsin. 
It  would  be  interesting  to  know  how  far  women  have  availed 
themselves  of  these  privileges." 

"I  am  informed,"  said  Mrs.  Notion,  "that  out  of  85,000 
Colorado  women  who  were  entitled  to  vote  at  the  election  in  1894, 
65,000  availed  themselves  of  the  opportunity.  This  is  certainly 
as  large  a  proportion  of  voters  as  we  find  among  men." 

' '  True,  Matilda,  but  in  Massachusetts  only  22, 204  women  took 
the  trouble  to  go  to  the  polls,  although  more  than  350,000  of 
them  were  entitled  to  do  so." 

"It  may  be,  Edward,  that  they  did  not  care  to  vote  at  all, 
unless  they  were  fully  qualified  as  electors. ' ' 

"Yes,"  replied  Mr.  Notion,  "and  it  is  also  possible  that  the 
women  of  the  eastern  states  are  more  conservative,  and  hence  less 
inclined  to  assert  themselves  politically,  than  are  their  sisters  of 
the  far  west." 

"I  am  delighted,  too,"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Notion,  "at  the 
unqualified  endorsement  which  woman  suffrage  has  received  from 
some  of  the  leading  men  of  Colorado.  For  instance,  T.  M. 
Patterson,  editor  of  the  Denver  J\Wv<,  says:  'The  result  of  woman 
suffrage  in  Colorado  is  quite  up  to  the  expectations  of  its  conserv- 
ative friends.  In  Denver  and  most  other  cities  of  the  state 
women  have  generally  voted — it  is  believed  more  generally  than 


236  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

tlie  men.  They  mingle  in  the  caucus  and  at  the  primaries  with 
men,  and  it  is  noticed  that  since  their  advent  these  political  func- 
tions have  been  far  more  honest  and  orderly  than  of  yore.  The 
fact  that  they  have  the  ballot  has  secured  in  Denver  a  far  more 
rigorous  execution  of  the  laws  against  gambling  and  other  like 
public  delinquencies  than  was  ever  before  known.  On  the  whole, 
in  my  opinion,  woman  suffrage  in  Colorado  has  had  a  healthful 
and  elevating  influence  upon  the  public  service  and  municipal 
morals  generally.  Don't  understand  me  that  it  has  cured  all  the 
ills  afflicting  the  body  politic.  It  has  cured  some  serious  ones, 
and  is  rapidly  exterminating  others.'  Albert  "W.  Mclntire,  the 
governor  of  Colorado,  says:  'So  far  the  objections  made  to  equal 
suffrage  during  the  campaign  preceding  the  election  at  which  the 
ballot  was  given  to  women,  have  not  been  sustained  by  the  facts. 
The  women  do  take  an  interest,  do  enter  into  the  questions  under 
discussion,  and  do  take  the  trouble  to  vote.  The  only  danger 
anticipated,  and  not  yet  proven  to  exist,  is  that  they  may  be 
deceived  by  those  having  ulterior  motives,  but  professing  right- 
eous and  disinterested  purposes.  They  are  realizing  that  it  is 
necessary  for  them  to  investigate  the  facts  for  themselves,  and  not 
to  believe  all  that  they  are  told,  especially  keeping  in  mind  that 
in  politics,  as  in  other  matters,  the  source  must  be  considered. 
The  correctness  of  their  purpose  tends  to  counteract  their  inexpe- 
rience. There  are  80,000  women  eligible  to  vote  in  Colorado, 
and  about  65,000  voted  at  the  last  election." 

"You  have  certainly  presented  strong  testimony  in  favor  of 
the  practical  workings  of  female  suffrage." 

"And  yet  I  think,  Edward,  that  the  verdict  of  "William 
Stapleton,  editor  of  the  Denver  Republican,  is  stronger  still.  He 
says:  *  Equal  suffrage  has  been  the  law  in  Colorado  for  nearly 
three  years  now,  and  nothing  could  induce  the  intelligent  people 
of  this  state  to  revoke  that  act  if  they  had  the  power.  Women 
appear  to  show  as  much  intelligence  and  to  take  as  deep  an 
interest  in  political  affairs,  especially  those  that  affect  the  general 
welfare,  as  men,  and  their  influence  is  almost  entirely  cast  for 
right  and  decency  and  good  government.  In  all  the  elections 
held  since  the  change  was  made,  women  have  cast  more  than  forty 
per  cent  of  the  total  vote,  and  everybody  admits  that  their  pres- 
ence in  politics  and  at  the  polls  has  a  purifying  and  elevating 
effect  on  our  political  methods,  and  has  compelled  the  nomination 
and  election  of  a  better  class  of  officials  than  male  suffrage  ever 


POLITICAL   STATUS    OF    WOMEN.  237 

gave  us.  No  evil  effects,  either  to  the  women  themselves,  or  to 
our  public  affairs,  are  discernible,  while  the  benefits  of  the  equal 
suffrage  law  are  innumerable.'  These  gratifying  comments  by 
intelligent,  fair-minded  men  upon  the  operation  of  the  law  in 
Colorado,  combined  with  the  willingness  of  the  male  citizens  of 
California  to  sign  petitions  for  female  suffrage,  and  the  eagerness 
with  which  the  Republican,  Populist,  and  Prohibitionist  state 
conventions  adopted  planks  in  their  platforms  cordially  endorsing 
the  proposed  equal  suffrage  amendment  to  the  constitution  of  this 
state,  make  me  sanguine  that,  despite  the  defeat  of  that  amend- 
ment in  the  election  of  1896,  I  shall  soon  be  your  political  peer," 
if  not  your  domestic  equal. ' ' 

"I  must  admit,  Matilda,  that  female  suffrage  opens  up  many 
startling  possibilities.  For  instance,  in  Gaylord,  a  Kansas  town 
of  1,500  inhabitants,  the  government  is  entirely  conducted  by 
women. ' ' 

' '  It  seems  to  me  that  Gaylady  would  be  a  more  appropriate 
designation,"  said  Mrs.  Notion  archly. 

"I  promise  you,  Matilda,  that  I  shall  never  say  again  that 
women  are  not  witty.  You  have  been  trying  to  disprove  the 
assertion  ever  since  I  made  it.  In  that  town  all  the  municipal 
business  is  done  by  ladies.  They  surrounded  the  polls  on  elec- 
tion day,  and  appropriated  everything  in  sight.  Mrs.  Antoinette 
L.  Haskell,  a  banker's  wife,  became  the  mayor;  Miss  Florence 
Headley,  an  editor,  the  city  clerk;  and  Mrs.  Mary  L.  Foote 
filled  very  gracefully  the  position  of  police  judge.  The  husband 
of  this  last-named  lady  had  the  temerity  to  be  himself  a  candi- 
date for  this  office,  and  of  course  he  was  overwhelmingly  defeated. 
The  members  of  the  city  council  were  also  women." 

"You  haven't  told  the  best  of  it  yet,"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Notion 
gleefully.  "Let  me  tell  you  that  this  town  is  governed  with 
honesty,  ability,  and  economv.  There  is  no  corruption  or  job- 
bery. The  streets  are  clean  and  smooth,  the  sidewalks  are  wide, 
the  public  works  are  first-class,  and  there  is  not  a  single  dollar  of 
municipal  indebtedness.  The  names  of  the  members  of  the  city 
council,  which  you  omitted  to  state,  are:  Mrs.  Emma  A.  Mitchell, 
Mrs.  Esther  Johnson,  Mrs.  Loella  Abercrombie,  and  Mrs.  Nancy 
Wright.  You  see  they  are  all  married  ladies,  and  their  husbands 
are  thus  well  represented." 

"Save  your  arguments  for  our  next  talk,"  said  Mr.  Notion. 
"And  now  for  a  brief  review  of  the  efforts  which  have  been 
made  to  bring  about  female  suffrage." 


238  DOMESTIC  DUELS. 

"I  think  there  must  have  been  some  attempt  to  gain  political 
recognition  for  Englishwomen  in  1739,"  said  Mrs.  Notion,  "for 
in  that  year  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  decided  that,  if  women 
ever  had  the  right  to  vote,  they  had  lost  it,  because,  as  one  of 
the  learned  judges  of  the  court  said,  'the  choice  of  members  of 
Parliament  requires  an  improved  understanding,  which  women 
are  not  supposed  to  have.'  How  flattering  that  was  to  the 
mothers  and  wives  of  jurists!" 

"John  Stuart  Mill,"  continued  Mr.  Notion,  "offered  an 
amendment  to  the  Electoral  Reform  Bill,  in  1807,  which 
extended  the- elective  franchise  to  female  householders.  It  was 
lost  by  a  vote  of  196  to  83.  The  courts  were  then  appealed  to 
upon  the  ground  that  the  term  'every  man'  in  the  bill  of  that 
year  included  'woman,'  under  the  principle  laid  down  in  Lord 
Brougham's  Act,  that  'in  all  acts  words  importing  the  masculine 
gender  shall  be  deemed  and  taken  to  include  females,  unless  the 
contrary  be  expressly  provided.1  The  court  rendered  a  decision 
adverse  to  this  claim,  the  main  opinion  being  written  by  the  chief 
justice.  The  concurring  judges  stated  that  women  were  not 
excluded  from  the  suffrage  because  of  intellectual  inferiority,  but 
from  a  desire  to  promote  decorum,  and  hence  it  was  rather  a 
privilege  and  an  homage  paid  to  the  gentle  sex." 

"It  is  here  in  America  that  the  agitation  in  favor  of  woman 
suffrage  has  been  most  persistently  conducted,"  said  Mi's.  Notion. 
"In  1847  Antoinette  L.  Brown  and  Lucy  Stone  began  making 
public  speeches  in  favor  of  the  reform.  The  following  year  the 
first  Woman's  Rights  Convention  ever  held  sat  at  Seneca  Falls, 
New  York.  It  was  called  by  Lucretia  Mott  and  Eli/aheth 
duly  Stanton,  and,  relative  to  the  demand  for  political  equality 
made  by  this  body  of  women,  Wendell  Phillips  said:  'It  is  the 
most  momentous  reform  that  has  yet  been  launched  on  the  world — 
the  first  organized  protest  against  the  injustice  which  has  brooded 
over  the  character  and  destiny  of  one-half  the  human  race.' 
For  thirty  years  past  the  representatives  of  this  movement  have 
gone  to  every  Congress  and  petitioned  for  a  sixteenth  amendment 
to  the  federal  constitution,  which  shall  clothe  woman  with  all  her 
political  rights.  In  1894  a  petition  for  equal  suffrage  was  pre- 
sented to  the  New  York  Constitutional  Convention.  It  was 
signed  by  025,000  persons,  more  than  half  of  whom  were  women, 
and  yet  the  members  of  that  convention  refused  to  incorporate 
woman  suffrage  into  the  document  which  it  framed." 


POLITICAL   STATUS    OF    WOMKN.  239 

' '  Our  American  courts,  Matilda,  have  also  had  something  to 
say  about  this  subject.  In  1871  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia  decided  that  the  franchise  under  the  American 
system  was  not  a  natural  right,  and  that  women  could  not  vote 
unless  vested  Avith  the  elective  franchise  by  the  legislative  power. 
It  said:  '  The  right  to  vote  ought  not  to  be  and  is  not  an  absolute 
right.  The  fact  that  the  practical  working  of  the  assumed  right 
would  be  destructive  of  civilization,  is  decisive  that  the  right 
does  not  exist.'  In  1874  the  United  States  Supreme  Court 
rendered  a  decision  to  the  same  effect,  on  an  appeal  by  a  lady  of 
Missouri." 

"If  it  is  in  order,  Edward,  I  should  also  like  to  refer  to  the 
decisions  of  different  state  courts  with  reference  to  the  domestic 
status  of  woman." 

"Why,  Matilda,  you  should  feel  perfectly  free  to  make  any 
suggestion  you  wish. ' ' 

"Thank  you,"  replied  Mrs.  Notion.  "In  Pennsylvania,  in 
the  case  of  Richards  vs.  Richards,  the  court  declared  that  'it  is  a 
sickly  sentimentality  which  holds  that  a  man  may  not  lay  hands 
rudely  if  need  be  on  his  wife. '  The  Supreme  Court  of  Missis- 
sippi, in  the  case  of  Bradley  vs.  The  State,  asserted  that  'a  hus- 
band should  confine  himself  in  proper  bounds  when  he  sees  fit 
to  correct  his  wife.'  In  another  case  the  Court  of  Appeals  of 
New  York  decided  that  to  give  a  wife  the  right  to  bring  an  action 
against  her  husband  for  beating  her,  would  be  'contrary  to  the 
policy  of  the  law,  and  destructive  of  that  conjugal  union  and 
tranquillity  which  it  has  always  been  the  object  of  the  law  to 
guard  and  protect.'  I  merely  cite  these  decisions  to  show  you 
why  women  are  so  anxious  to  wield  the  law-making  power.  We 
want  to  remove  every  such  vestige  of  barbarism  from  the  statute- 
books  of  the  nation." 

"I  am  afraid,  Matilda,  that  you  are  beginning  to  argue  the 
case  a  little." 

"Oh,  no,  Edward,  I  am  merely  stating  facts!  And  before  I 
forget  it,  let  me  quote  from  the  report  of  an  English  divorce  case 
in  the  New  York  World  of  February  23,  1883,  to  show  you  that 
the  women  of  that  country  want  to  do  some  legislation  as  soon  as 
possible.  It  is  as  follows:  'Sir  James  Hannen,  in  the  Probate 
and  Divorce  Court  at  London,  has  just  dismissed  the  petition  for 
a  judicial  separation  from  her  husband  of  Mrs.  Latham,  on  the 
ground  that  she  was  in  too  much  of  a  hurry  to  escape  from  a 


240  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

husband  who  merely  beat  her,  tore  off  her  clothes,  threw  her 
down,  reviled  her,  wiped  his  shoes  on  her  mantle,  sat  up  all 
night  to  burn  her  clothes  up,  cut  off  one  of  her  eyebrows,  and 
shaved  one  side  of  her  head.  Sir  James  was  astonished  at  the 
woman's  impetuosity  and  petulance,  and  bade  her  wait  till  her 
husband  should  put  her  in  danger  of  serious  'injury  to  life  and 
limb.'" 

"Do  you  believe  that,  Matilda?" 

"Yes,  indeed,  every  word  of  it.  It  is  hard  to  tell  how  far 
even  good  men  will  go  in  their  prejudice  against  the  members  of 
my  sex.  Mrs".  Lilie  Devereux  Blake,  one  of  the  most  gifted 
women  in  America,  tells  the  following  instance  in  her  book 
called  'Woman's  Place  To-day:'  'In  Nebraska  last  fall,  I  stood 
at  the  polls  on  election  day,  when  the  men  were  voting  on  the 
constitutional  amendment  for  woman  suffrage.  A  man  came  in 
who  had  lost  his  right  arm  in  the  war.  While  he  lay  helpless  in 
the  hospital,  he  was  nursed  back  to  life  by  two  women,  strangers 
to  him,  who  devoted  themselves  to  him  for  humanity's  sake,  and 
he  said  frankly  that  but  for  them  he  should  have  died.  Since 
his  return  to  his  home,  crippled,  his  faithful  wife  had  supported 
him.  And  yet  this  man,  who  owed  his  life  to  Avoman' s  charity 
and  his  support  to  Avoman's  love,  with  his  one  remaining  arm 
and  hand  cast  a  ballot  against  woman  suffrage. '  Now,  Edward, 
don't  you  really  think  that  that  was  a  piece  of  the  basest  in- 
gratitude?" 

' '  Not  necessarily,  Matilda.  The  old  veteran  was  doubtless 
conscientiously  opposed  to  female  suffrage,  and  probably  thought  he 
was  doing  women  a  service  by  voting  against  the  amendment. ' ' 

"The  fact  of  the  matter  is,"  said  Mrs.  Notion  with  unwonted 
emphasis,  "  that  women  are  too  cheaply  regarded  by  the  majority 
of  men  everywhere.  This  is  well  illustrated  by  the  following 
circumstance:  Not  long  since  a  judge  remonstrated  with  a  man 
for  having  cruelly  beaten  another  man ;  the  culprit  looked  at  his 
victim  penitently,  and  said,  'I  am  very  sorry,  judge;  you  see  I 
was  a  little  drunk,  and  I  thought  it  was  my  wife.'  If  the 
scoundrel  had  been  standing  before  a  woman  judge,  he  would  not 
have  dared  to  make  such  an  excuse. ' ' 

'  'And  yet, ' '  said  Mr.  Notion,  ' '  I  have  observed  that  as  a  rule 
men  are  more  kindly  disposed  toward  women  than  other  women 
are." 

"Another   wrong   which    needs    to   be   righted,"    said   Mrs. 


POLITICAL   STATUS   OF   WOMEN.  241 

Notion,  "is  that  of  the  treatment  of  female  criminals.  In  the 
prisons  of  the  large  cities  no  adequate  provision  is  made  for  their 
accommodation  or  proper  care.  Some  years  since  in  New  York 
state,  when  a  bill  authorizing  the  appointment  of  police  matrons 
in  all  the  large  cities  was  passed  by  the  Legislature,  the  governor 
refused  to  sign  it.  And  yet  in  London  every  police  station  has 
attached  to  it  a  matron,  whose  duties  are  to  keep  the  cells  tidy, 
to  look  after  female  prisoners,  and  to  search  women  accused  of 
theft.  I  might  relate  many  instances  showing  the  crying  need  of 
this  reform.  At  Wellsville,  New  York,  a  woman  was  found 
staggering  on  the  street.  She  was  taken  to  the  station,  and  some 
violence  was  used,  as  she  resisted  arrest.  Within  a  few  hours 
she  gave  birth  to  a  child,  on  whose  body  were  the  bruises  made 
by  the  policeman's  club.  In  another  case  a  woman  was  charged 
with  drunkenness,  and  put  in  a  cell,  only  to  be  found  dead  the 
next  morning  with  a  dead  babe  beside  her.  Another  woman 
was  found  on  the  street  insensible,  taken  to  a  station  house,  and 
pi  ced  in  a  cell  for  the  night.  When  morning  came  it  was 
ascertained  that  she  was  not  drunk,  but  that  her  face  was  covered 
with  bruises,  and  that  she  was  seriously  wounded.  Though  taken 
to  the  hospital  and  properly  treated,  these  measures  came  too 
late,  and  she  died  without  recovering  consciousness." 

' '  I  see,  my  dear,  that  you  find  it  exceedingly  difficult  to  re- 
frain from  arguing  this  question,  and  in  order  that  you  may  do 
so  without  any  embarrassment,  I  suggest  that  we  bring  this  little 
talk  to  a  close,  and  give  you  full  opportunity  to  state  your  views 
on  the  subject  to-morrow  evening.  First,  however,  I  should  like 
to  quote  briefly  from  the  concluding  portion  of  Ostrogorski's 
excellent  work." 

"All  right,  Edward,  but  let  me  read  a  few  lines  from  Ralph 
Waldo  Emerson's  address  before  the  Woman's  Rights  Convention, 
at  Boston,  in  1855,  and  I  shall  be  pleased  to  listen  to  Ostrogorski. 
He  said:  'I  do  not  think  it  yet  appears  that  women  wish  this 
equal  share  in  public  affairs.  But  it  is  they  and  not  we  that  are 
to  determine  it.  Let  the  laws  be  purged  of  every  barbarous  re- 
mainder, every  barbarous  impediment  to  women.  Let  the  public 
donations  for  education  be  equally  shared  by  them;  let  them  enter 
a  school  as  freely  as  a  church;  let  them  have  and  hold  and  give 
their  property  as  men  do  theirs;  and  in  a  few  years  it  will  easily 
appear  whether  they  wish  a  voice  in  making  the  laws  that  are  to 
govern  them.  If  you  do  refuse  them  a  vote,  you  will  also  refuse 
16 


242  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

to  tax  them;  according  to  our  Teutonic  principle,  No  represen- 
tation, no  tax.  .  .  .  Let  us  have  the  true  woman,  the 
adorner,  the  hospitable,  the  religious  heart,  and  no  lawyer  need 
be  called  in  to  write  stipulations,  the  cunning  clauses  of  provision, 
the  strong  investitures;  for  woman  moulds  the  lawgiver  and 
writes  the  law.  .  .  .  Woman  should  find  in  man  her 
guardian.  Silently  she  looks  for  that,  and  when  she  finds  that  he 
is  not,  as  she  instantly  does,  she  betakes  her  to  her  own  defenses, 
and  does  the  best  she  can.  But  when  he  is  her  guardian,  fulfilled 
with  all  nobleness,  knows  and  accepts  his  duties  as  her  brother, 
all  goes  well  for  both.  The  new  movement  is  only  a  tide  shared 
by  the  spirits  of  man  and  woman ;  and  you  may  proceed  in  the 
faith  that  whatever  the  woman's  heart  is  prompted  to  desire,  the 
man's  mind  is  simultaneously  prompted  to  accomplish.' ' 

"  You  have  read  some  wise  words  from  Emerson,"  said  Mr. 
Notion,  "which  I  had  intended  to  call  to  your  attention.  Other 
sentiments  of  his  strike  me  as  being  entirely  erroneous.  But 
now  for  Ostrogorski:  'The  legislative  movement  we  have  been 
considering  is,  doubtless,  still  distant  from  its  goal;  in  some 
respects,  indeed,  it  is  only  just  starting.  But,  in  any  case,  it  is 
already  sufficiently  under  way  to  enable  us  to  discern  the  tend- 
encies which  guide  it.  Now,  in  every  part  of  the  globe,  where 
we  have  attempted  to  follow  its  course,  one  such  tendency  has 
always  been  discernible.  The  legislator  refuses  obstinately  to 
grant  political  rights  to  woman.  With  one  or  two  insignificant 
exceptions,  woman  has  nowhere  succeeded  in  obtaining  the  par- 
liamentary suffrage.  She  has,  indeed,  been  more  fortunate  in 
respect  of  local  self-government;  but  the  municipal  vote  granted 
to  her  in  several  countries  is  by  no  means  a  departure  from  the 
general  attitude  of  the  legislator  towards  her  political  rights. 
While  he  exhibits  such  reserve,  not  to  say  dislike, 
towards  woman's  political  claims,  the  legislator  shows  himself 
much  more  favorably  disposed  towards  her  social  emancipation, 
and  readier  every  year  to  put  an  end  to  the  state  of  social 
inferiority  in  which  she  has  been  kept  for  centuries  by  the  laws, 
and,  still  more,  by  the  influence  of  popular  prejudice.  This 
twofold  attitude  is  nowhere  more  clearly  visible  than  in  the  great 
American  democracy  of  the  United  States,  a  society,  it  is  to  be 
remembered,  which  is  free  from  the  traditions  and  prejudices  of 
the  Old  AVorld,  and  renowned  for  a  rather  daring  spirit  that 
stops  at  no  obstacle,  and  is  not  frightened  by  paradox.  The 


POLITICAL   STATUS    OF    WOMEN.  243 

Americans  are  removing  the  social  barriers  raised  against  women; 
they  are  admitting  them  not  only  to  subordinate  offices,  but  to 
the  bar,  nay,  even  to  the  bar  of  the  highest  court  in  the  land. 
But  as  soon  as  political  suffrage  is  demanded  for 
women,  the  American  people  become  refractory.  It  is  in  vain 
that  the  'natural  right'  argument  is  invoked.  The  atomist 
theory,  according  to  which  each  human  unit  is  entitled  to  its 
arithmetical  quoto  of  political  power,  is  implicitly  swept  aside  by 
the  American  people,  and  formally  condemned  by  its  tribunals. ' 
I  think  now,  Matilda,  that  we  have  got  the  subject  in  such  a 
shape  that  you  will  have  a  clear  field  for  the  presentation  of 
your  views." 


Mrs.  Notion  Presents  Her  Arguments  in  Favor 
of  Woman  Suffrage. 

' '  Yet  when  I  approach 
Her  loveliness,  so  absolute  she  seems, 
And  in  herself  complete;  so  well  to  know 
Her  own,  that  what  she  wills  to  do  or  say 
Seems  wisest,  virtuousest,  discreetest,  best." 

— Milton. 

"Before  I  begin  my  presentation  of  the  subject,  Edward,  I 
want  to  know  just  how  you  stand.  You  were  formerly  in  favor 
of  woman  suffrage,  and  talked  enthusiastically  in  its  behalf,  but 
for  the  last  year  or  two  I  have  not  heard  you  speak  of  it.  You 
are  so  changeable  that  I  am  very  much  afraid  you  have  mod- 
ified your  views  upon  the  subject. ' ' 

"Frankly,  Matilda,  I  have.  In  my  youth  I  fondly  believed 
that  the  bestowal  of  the  ballot  upon  women  would  prove  a 
panacea  for  all  political  and  social  ills.  Later  I  came  to  think 
that  no  positive  good  would  result  from  it;  that  the  average 
woman  would  vote  about  the  same  as  the  average  man ;  that  the 
good  effects  which  might  flow  from  the  innovation  would  be  fully 
offset  by  the  evil  ones;  in  other  words,  that  the  law  of  compen- 
sation would  apply;  but  I  thought  that,  as  a  matter  of  right, 
women  were  entitled  to  the  political  franchise.  Now,  however, 
I  am  of  the  opinion  that  neither  men  nor  women  have  any 
inherent  right  to  vote,  and  that  the  entire  question  of  who  shall 
cast  the  ballot,  resolves  itself  into  one  of  political  expediency. 
Hence,  I  am  no  longer  an  advocate  of  female  suffrage,  except 
with  considerable  limitations,  which  I  shall  speak  of  more  par- 
ticularly hereafter." 

"I  might  have  known  it!"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Notion.  "You 
are  the  most  changeable  person  I  have  ever  met,  so  far  as  your 
religious  and  political  opinions  are  concerned.  And  yet  your 
habits  are  strangely  fixed,  and  in  matters  of  every-day  life  you 
are  stubborn  in  a  high  degree.  But  I  have  no  doubt  that  you  have 
plenty  of  plausible  arguments  with  which  to  justify  your  change 
(244) 


ARGUMENT  FOR  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE.  245 

of  position.  One  of  them  I  am  already  familiar  with,  and  that 
is  that  you  are  progressive  and  candid,  and  consequently  are 
always  willing  to  admit  mistakes,  and  relinquish  erroneous  or  ill- 
considered  conclusions. ' ' 

' '  Please  proceed  with  your  points  in  favor  of  female  suffrage, ' ' 
remonstrated  Mr.  Notion. 

"In  the  first  place,  Edward,  I  contend  that  women  should  be 
clothed  with  the  elective  franchise  as  a  matter  of  right  and 
justice.  It  is  outrageous  to  give  the  ballot  to  every  foreign  man 
who  has  been  here  five  years,  and  yet  deny  it  to  pure,  refined, 
and  intelligent  women  who  were  born  in  the  country.  There  is  no 
good  reason  why  my  sons  should  be  permitted  to  vote  at  twenty- 
one  years  of  age,  while  their  mother  and  sisters  are  denied  the  same 
right.  The  fact  is  that  the  enlightened,  patriotic  women  of  the 
United  States  are  no  longer  willing  to  be  classed  with  felons, 
idiots,  lunatics,  and  persons  in  their  nonage. ' ' 

' '  But  these  good  women  are  generally  quite  adequately  repre- 
sented in  a  political  way  by  their  husbands,  sons,  and  brothers, ' ' 
suggested  Mr.  Notion. 

" I  deny  it, "  replied  Mrs.  Notion  with  vigor.  "If  we  were 
fairly  represented  by  our  male  relatives,  they  would  not  relax 
their  exertions  for  a  single  moment  until  they  had  obtained  for  us 
the  ballot.  No,  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  average 
American  male  voter  does  not  represent  himself  when  he  goes  to 
the  polls,  let  alone  his  disfranchised  woman  relatives.  With 
your  political  bossism,  corrupt  primaries,  bribery  of  voters,  and 
fraudulent  counting,  it  has  come  to  pass  that  you  are  little  more 
than  political  automata,  permitted  at  long  intervals  of  time  to 
make  certain  merely  mechanical  movements  with  a  piece  of  paper 
denominated  a  ballot.  But  I  have  much  to  say,  and  another 
reason  why  women  should  vote  is  because  taxation  without  repre- 
sentation is  vicious  in  principle,  and  so  repugnant  to  our  Amer- 
ican sense  of  justice  that  we  once  went  to  war  with  England  in 
order  to  put  an  end  to  it." 

"If  the  right  to  vote  were  confined  to  property  holders,  or 
were  based  upon  the  ownership  of  property,  there  would  possibly 
be  some  reason  in  your  claim,"  said  Mr.  Notion. 

"I  am  not  talking  about  property  holders,  Edward,  but  about 
taxpayers.  Every  woman  in  the  country  is  taxed  either  indi- 
rectly or  directly  for  the  support  of  the  government,  and  we 
ought  to  have  a  voice  as  to  the  manner  in  which  the  money  thus 


246  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

taken  from  us  shall  be  spent.  Condorcet  said  in  this  connection 
in  the  last  century:  'One  is  legitimately  subject  only  to  those 
taxes  for  which  one  has  voted,  if  not  personally,  at  least  through 
the  medium  of  representatives;  and  from  this  principle  it  follows 
that  every  woman  is  entitled  to  refuse  to  pay  parliamentary  taxes. 
I  see  no  valid  reply  to  such  reasoning,  at  least  on  the  part  of 
widows  or  unmarried  women. ' ' 

"  I  think,  Matilda,  that  there  is  some  force  in  the  argument  in 
favor  of  widows  and  possibly  other  unmarried  women  being 
clothed  with  some  measure  of  political  power." 

"What!"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Notion,  "would  you  advocate  the 
ballot  for  single  women,  and  leave  unrepresented  the  wives  and 
mothers  of  the  land,  those  who  have  the  greatest  interest  in  see- 
ing that  there  is  good  government  ? ' ' 

"I  have  not  said  so,"  answered  Mr.  Notion  cautiously. 

"Very  well,  sir.  I  hope  you  never  will.  Another  reason  why 
we  ought  to  have  the  ballot,  is  that  we  need  it  for  the  protection 
of  ourselves  and  our  families.  Often,  in  fact,  we  need  it  most 
for  the  protection  of  our  husbands  themselves. ' ' 

1 '  But  you  forget,  Matilda,  that  men  are  the  natural  protectors 
of  women." 

"I  never  knew  it,  Edward,  so  I  couldn't  forget  it.  And,  so 
far  as  your  male  protection  is  concerned,  who  is  it  that  women 
fear  at  night,  when  they  walk  on  lonely  roads?  Are  they 
alarmed  because  of  members  of  their  own  sex,  or  on  account  of 
their  alleged  protectors  ? ' ' 

"But,"  said  Mr.  Notion,  "women  look  to  good  men  for 
protection  against  bad  ones." 

"I  will  concede,  Edward,  that  men  are  often  first-class  pro- 
tectors for  the  women  of  their  own  families,  but  they  are  not 
equally  reliable  as  the  protectors  of  women  who  belong  to  the 
families  of  other  men.  I  tell  you,  if  we  had  the  ballot,  we 
would  be  treated  with  much  more  respect,  for  I  have  observed 
that  the  elective  franchise  constitutes  about  the  only  claim  to 
deference  and  consideration  which  millions  of  American  men 
possess.  But  another  reason  why  women  should  have  suffrage, 
is  because  they  are  better  than  the  men.  You  have  said  it  so 
often  yourself  that  you  can  not  now  deny  it.  We  have  been 
told  this  so  repeatedly  by  the  men  that  we  devoutly  believe  it. 
We  are  convinced  that  as  a  sex  we  are  purer,  cleaner,  more 
honest,  and  less  extravagant  than  you  men.  I  don't  think  we 


ARGUMENT  FOR  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE.          247 

spend  half  as  much  for  dress  as  you  do,  and  I  know  we  don't 
throw  away  a  billion  dollars  annually  on  liquors,  and  nearly 
three-quarters  of  a  billion  more  for  tobacco. ' ' 

"And  yet,  Matilda,  the  drink  habit  among  women  is 
increasing. ' ' 

"And  no  wonder,"  said  Mrs.  Notion.  "We  have  no  oppor- 
tunity to  put  away  temptation,  to  shut  up  the  saloons,  to  extir- 
pate the  liquor  traffic.  Give  us  a  chance  to  get  a  good,  fair  blow 
at  the  monstrous  business,  and  see  how  long  it  will  flaunt  itself  in 
the  face  of  decency,  and  bid  bold  defiance  to  the  law.  But 
another  reason,  and  a  more  important  one,  for  giving  the  ballot 
to  women  is  to  enable  them  to  protect  their  sons.  The  thought 
of  it  brings  the  tears  to  my  eyes.  Every  time  I  pass  a  saloon  I 
tremble  for  my  own  dear  boys.  Who  knows  but  the  day  may 
come  when  they  will  stagger  out  of  some  drinking  place  hopeless 
drunkards.  We  do  entreat  you  to  place  us  in  a  position  where 
we  can  make  better  laws  for  the  sake  of  our  children,  and  not 
only  that,  but  where  we  will  be  able  to  enforce  the  good  laws 
which  are  now  upon  the  statute-book.  As  Lilie  Devereux  Blake 
says,  '  we  can  guard  them  now  while  they  lie  in  our  arms,  we  can 
protect  them  while  they  toddle  at  our  feet,  but  when  they  pass 
beyond  our  portals,  then  what  power  have  we  to  shield  them? 
Men  have  opened  on  every  side  the  doors  of  places  that  shall  lead 
our  sons — aye,  and  even  our  daughters — down  to  destruction, 
and  we  have  no  power  to  close  them.  It  is  because  we  love  our 
children,  because  for  their  sakes  we  would  use  our  influence 
beyond  the  home  to  make  the  world  purer  and  better,  that  we  are 
asking  for  greater  liberties  to-day.'  ' 

' '  Let  me  say  right  here,  Matilda,  that  I  am  in  favor  of  giving 
women  a  vote  on  all  questions  affecting  the  liquor  traffic,  social 
purity,  education,  divorce,  and  other  matters  pertaining  to  local 
self-government,  and  hence  directly  affecting  the  home." 

"Well,"  remarked  Mrs.  Notion,  "I  am  sincerely  thankful 
for  even  that  small  measure  of  recognition.  But  how  comes  it 
that  you  are  willing  to  go  that  far?" 

"The  fact  is,  Matilda,  that  unlimited  female  suffrage  is  sure 
to  come.  It  is  only  a  matter  of  time.  Even  now  I  believe  a 
majority  of  the  men  of  America  are  willing  to  go  as  far  as  I  have 
indicated,  and  to  make  the  concessions  which  I  have  named. 
While  I  am  personally  opposed  to  the  complete  participation  by 
women  in  political  affairs,  I  do  think  that  they  should  have  a 


248  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

voice  in  the  matters  referred  to.  It  is  extremely  difficult,  I 
admit,  to  draw  the  precise  line  of  demarkation,  aud  to  mark 
definitely  the  point  beyond  which  women  should  not  go.  But,  if 
we  proceed  slowly  and  carefully,  wisely  studying  every  step  of 
our  journey,  I  think  we  shall  succeed  in  vesting  women  with 
sufficient  political  power  to  accomplish  the  maximum  of  good  and 
the  minimum  of  evil." 

' '  You  expect,  Edward,  to  get  rid  of  the  law  of  compensation 
in  that  Avay.  But  I  am  convinced  that  the  task  which  you  have 
set  before  yourself  is  thoroughly  impracticable,  and  that  the  only 
way  out  is  to  recognize  women's  rights  freely  and  completely. 
There  are  many  other  reasons,  however,  why  we  should  have  the 
ballot.  As  our  civilization  grows  more  complex,  we  are  more 
interdependent,  and  the  homes  of  the  people  are  more  and  more 
closely  related.  Hence  it  is  that  the  government  necessarily 
comes  in  closer  contact  with  each  individual  home.  For  instance, 
our  house  is  connected  with  hundreds  of  others  by  sewers,  electric 
light  wires,  telephone  wires,  and  water  pipes.  These  are  all  the 
subjects  of  legislation,  affecting  not  only  the  cost  but  the  quality 
of  service.  How  absurd  and  monstrously  unjust  it  is  that  women, 
whose  lives  are  chiefly  spent  at  home,  and  whose  happiness  is  so 
interwoven  and  interblended  with  the  affairs  of  the  household, 
should  be  prevented  from  voicing  their  preferences  and  effectuat- 
ing their  wishes  in  these  important  matters.  In  fact,  I  claim  that 
the  world  is  suffering  because  of  the  lack  of  womanly  participation 
in  legislation  and  government.  We  should  have  the  opportunity 
to  say  what  kind  of  pictures  and  advertisements  should  be  posted 
upon  walls  and  fences,  and  to  stamp  out  of  existence  all  that  were 
suggestive,  or  in  anywise  immoral  and  indecent.  We  should 
have  the  privilege  of  trying  our  hands  at  the  destruction  of  the 
traffic  in  obscene  literature  and  photographs,  and  seeing  what  we 
could  do  to  protect  the  girls  who  are  now  being  decoyed  as 
recruits  for  the  brothel.  I  am  satisfied  that  the  question  of  pros- 
titution will  never  be  settled  until  it  is  settled  by  the  good  women 
of  the  land,  reenforced  in  their  righteous  efforts  by  the  sovereign 
ballot.  Men  are  not  fitted  to  solve  these  mighty  problems  alone. 
In  every  department  of  government  women  are  needed,  and  all 
that  is  done  without  them  is  imperfect  and  incomplete.  As 
Mrs.  Blake  says,  the  state  is  but  a  larger  family,  and  men  are 
not  renowned  as  good  housekeepers.  You  are  probably  aware, 
Ivl ward,  what  kind  of  house  a  Avoman  finds  when  she  has  left 
her  home  for  a  few  days  in  charge  of  her  husband." 


ARGTMKNT    KoU    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE.  249 

' '  Yes,  Matilda,  I  have  learned  something  about  that  by  disas- 
trous experience." 

' '  Well,  that  is  the  trouble  with  the  state  to-day.  You  will 
never  have  your  streets  properly  cleaned  until  you  give  us  the 
supervision  of  the  job,  and  the  roads  and  sewers  and  sidewalks 
are  all  in  bad  condition  for  lack  of  our  superintendence.  Please 
give  us,  who  are  the  natural  housekeepers  of  the  world,  a  chance 
to  help  keep  house  for  the  city,  the  state,  and  the  nation.  And, 
right  here,  I  want  to  quote  from  Miss  Anna  Shaw,  that  eloquent 
preacher,  that  witty  speaker,  that  wise  person,  that  worthy 
woman.  She. says:  'But  what  is  true  motherhood? — The  mother 
who,  instead  of  walking  the  floor  all  night  with  her  fever-stricken 
baby,  because  of  bad  sewerage,  bad  water,  and  dirty  streets,  will 
go  to  the  ballot-box  and  vote  for  clean  streets,  good  sewers,  and 
clean  water.  When  that  time  comes  wTe  will  have  the  caucuses 
at  home,  and  the  mother,  the  father,  and  the  son  will  caucus  for 
clean  laws,  against  the  saloon,  the  brothel,  and  the  dive. '  You 
know,  Edward,  it  was  Miss  Shaw  who  said  that  women  were 
tired  of  going  tandem,  that  they  proposed  to  keep  even,  and  go 
abreast  of  man." 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  Notion  dryly,  "I  remember  Miss  Shaw,  but 
I  do  not  share  your  admiration  for  her.  She  gave  utterance  to 
another  sentiment  in  the  same  address.  This  was  it:  'And  now 
I  want  to  emphasize  a  point  I  made  when  I  was  here  before,  and 
for  which  I  was  severely  criticised.  It  is  that  the  women  of  this 
country  commit  a  crime  if  there  is  another  child  born  in  this 
country  till  the  law  gives  protection  to  that  mother  and  that 
child.'  Now,  such  talk  as  that  I  consider  infamous.  It  is 
equivalent  to  a  declaration  that  women  ought  to  stop  the  repro- 
duction of  the  race  until  woman  suffrage  is  granted,  and  that,  in 
order  to  do  so,  any  means  is  justifiable. " 

"I  think,  Edward,  that  you  take  the  lady's  remark  too 
seriously." 

"No,  Matilda,  she  says  she  has  been  criticised  for  it  before, 
and  takes  pains  to  repeat  it,  thus  showing  her  deliberate  purpose." 

' '  Right  at  this  point, ' '  said  Mrs.  Notion,  ' '  I  want  to  quote 
briefly  from  Elizabeth  Cady  Station,  another  woman  whom  you 
do  not  like.  She  says:  'Woman  suffrage  means  a  complete 
revolution  in  our  government,  religion,  and  social  life;  a  revis- 
ion of  our  Constitution,  an  expurgated  edition  of  our  statute  laws 
and  codes,  civil  and  criminal.  It  means  equal  representation  in 


250  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

the  halls  of  legislation  and  in  the  courts  of  justice;  that  woman 
may  be  tried  by  her  own  peers,  by  judges  and  advocates  of  her 
own  choosing.  It  means  light  and  sunshine,  mercy  and  peace  in 
our  dungeons,  jails,  and  prisons;  the  bartiarous  idea  of  punish- 
ment superseded  by  the  divine  idea  of  reformation.  It  means 
police  matrons  in  all  our  station-houses,  that  young  girls  when 
arrested  during  the  night,  intoxicated  and  otherwise  helpless, 
may  be  under  the  watchful  eye  of  judicious  women,  and  not  left 
wholly  to  the  mercy  of  a  male  police." 

"Yes,  and  in  the  same  address,  Matilda,  she  makes  the  follow- 
ing significant  admission:  'It  is  a  singular  fact  that  we  have 
never  been  able  to  enlist  any  large  number  of  women  to  labor 
with  enthusiasm  for  their  own  emancipation.'  ' 

' '  I,  too,  am  astonished  that  such  should  be  the  case, ' '  said 
Mrs.  Notion,  "  but  we  have  never  been  able  to  muster  more  than 
7,000  members  of  our  national  Woman  Suffrage  Association. 
This  only  goes  to  show,  though,  that  women  have  been  cowed  by 
centuries  of  oppression,  and  that  the  vast  majority  of  them  are 
incapable  of  protesting  vehemently  against  injustices  which  have 
been  made  venerable  by  age.  But  I  wish  to  call  your  attention 
to  the  fact  that  women  are  much  better  economists  than  men,  and 
as  a  rule  can  purchase  goods  with  better  judgment.  We  are 
more  discriminating  buyers  than  you  are,  and  have  a  finer  eye 
for  quality.  These  good  traits  should  be  utilized  by  the  general 
public.  Women  should  have  at  least  as  much  to  say  as  men 
about  the  expenditure  of  the  people's  money.  Give  us  a  trial  in 
this  direction,  and  see  if  we  don't  put  a  stop  to  the  incompetence, 
wastefulness,  and  jobbery  which  now  characterize  the  administra- 
tion of  most  public  institutions.  Let  us  buy  the  supplies  for  the 
hospitals,  almshouses,  asylums,  jails,  and  prisons,  and  the  inmates 
will  fare  better  than  they  do  now,  and  at  much  less  cost.  We 
would  see  to  it  that  the  superintendents  and  resident  physicians 
would  not  live  as  sumptuously  as  at  present,  but  we  would 
improve  the  condition  of  the  poor  unfortunates  who  are  now  at 
their  mercy.  It  is  a  sin  and  a  shame  that  at  public  hospitals  the 
physicians  should  live  on  the  fat  of  the  land,  while  the  sick  and 
maimed  under  their  care  are  denied  the  delicacies  which  their 
condition  requires." 

"  It  is  a  shame,  Matilda,  but  I  am  not  prepared  to  admit  that 
women  would  do  any  better,  if  they  were  in  control." 

"All  that  we  ask  for  is  a  trial,  Edward.     We  don't  claim  to 


ARGUMENT  FOR  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE.  251 

be  perfect,  but  we  do  assert  our  ability  to  conduct  the  public 
business  with  reasonable  prudence,  economy,  and  honesty;  and 
we  are  confident  that  we  could  keep  the  public  buildings  clean,  a 
thing  which  you  have  utterly  failed  in  doing,  although  you 
employ  an  army  of  janitors  for  that  sole  purpose.  We  are  also 
anxious  to  undertake  the  task  of  removing  the  male  statuary,  or 
'  mashers '  as  you  call  them,  from  the  principal  streets,  where 
they  now  eye,  ogle,  and  stare  out  of  countenance  every  young 
woman  that  passes  by." 

"If  you  could  accomplish  that,"  said  Mr.  Notion,  "you 
would  earn  the  undying  gratitude  of  every  decent  man  in 
America. ' ' 

"  Just  give  us  the  opportunity, "  replied  Mrs.  Notion.  "But 
the  trouble  is  you  men  are  so  accustomed  to  ruling  that  you 
regard  this  as  a  man's  world,  with  woman  as  a  mere  annex  or 
appendage.  When  you  speak  of  the  people,  you  do  not  include 
the  women,  but  mean  only  the  male  people.  This  is  a  govern- 
ment, as  one  of  my  sisters  has  wittily  said,  of  men,  for  men, 
and  by  men." 

"But  we  are  afraid,  Matilda,  that,  if  the  good  women  of  the 
country  were  to  go  into  politics,  they  Avould  be  deceived  by  crafty 
and  designing  men. ' ' 

"Well,  suppose  we  were,"  quickly  retorted  Mrs.  Notion,  "we 
would  be  no  worse  off  than  a  vast  majority  of  you  men  are  now. 
You  have  told  me  yourself  that  the  masses  of  the  people,  meaning 
of  course  the  men,  were  incapable  of  voting  intelligently,  or  using 
the  elective  franchise  in  such  a  way  as  to  protect  their  own  inter- 
ests. I  don't  claim  that  the  women  are  much  wiser  than  the 
men.  In  other  words,  '  I'  in  not  denyin'  that  women  is  foolish — 
God  made  'em  to  match  the  men.'  The  fact  is,  Edward,  that 
you  men  have  made  an  admitted  failure  of  governing  yourselves, 
and  it  is  high  time  that  the  women  should  have  a  chance  to  try 
their  hand  at  the  game  of  statesmanship.  I  hear  you  saying  on 
every  hand  that  a  republican  form  of  government  is  a  failure  in 
all  the  large  cities,  and  that  unless  something  is  done  to  curb 
monopoly,  the  American  experiment  of  the  sovereignty  of  the 
people,  will  end  in  ruin  and  disaster.  Right  at  this  juncture  the 
good  women  of  the  country,  with  a  patriotism  worthy  of  your 
warmest  admiration,  come  forward  and  ask  to  be  permitted  to  do 
their  part  in  saving  the  country,  and  preserving  for  generations 
unborn  the  heritage  of  free  institutions." 


252  DOMESTIC   DUELS. 

"Matilda,  you  are  developing  rapidly  into  an  effective  stump 
speaker.  If  women  ever  do  get  a  vote,  and  you  run  for  office, 
you  will  be  elected,  sure." 

"It  isn't  an  office  that  I  want,"  said  Mrs.  Notion,  "but  I  am 
advocating  equal  justice  for  both  sexes.  And  right  here  let  me 
quote  again  from  Miss  Shaw:  'If  man  is  downtrodden  by  the 
politicians,  why  does  he  not  rebel?  Men  admit  that  in  the  exist- 
ing order  of  political  corruption  they  are  denied  their  rights  and 
are  unable  to  freely  govern  themselves,  and  yet  they  insist  on 
their  full  right  and  ability  to  govern  women.  Even  the  wild 
men  of  Africa  to-day  are  demanding  the  right  of  self-government, 
and  yet  there  are  those  who  deny  it  to  the  educated,  cultured 
women  of  the  United  States. '  ' 

"But  the  trouble  is,"  expostulated  Mr.  Notion,  "that  it  is 
not  feasible  to  give  the  franchise  to  the  educated,  cultured  women 
alone.  If  it  is  extended  to  women  at  all,  it  will  be  given  to  all 
classes,  the  ignorant,  the  vulgar,  and  the  vicious,  as  well  as  the 
refined,  intelligent,  and  virtuous. " 

' '  I  know  of  no  better  way  of  elevating  and  educating  the  lower 
classes  of  women  than  to  give  them  the  ballot,"  replied  Mrs. 
Notion.  "It  will  impart  to  them  a  dignity  and  a  self-respect 
which  are  impossible  under  existing  conditions. ' ' 

'  *  I  am  compelled  to  differ  from  you  there,  too,  Matilda,  for 
the  possession  of  the  elective  franchise  has  not  had  that  effect  upon 
the  men  of  the  country,  and  why  should  it  upon  the  women?  " 

"The  reason  is  evident,  Edward.  All  human  progress  has 
been  made  by  the  sexes  hand  in  hand,  and  man,  in  attempting  to 
monopolize  the  business  of  politics  and  the  science  of  government, 
has  violated  a  law  of  nature,  and  suffered  the  inevitable  penalty. 
But,  if  man  and  woman  associate  themselves  together  in  political 
effort,  they  will  both  be  benefited  and  uplifted.  Besides,  I  am 
sure  that  Avoinen  have  more  practical  common  sense  than  men. 
We  are  less  inclined  to  theorize  than  you  are,  but  we  look  at 
things  as  they  are,  and  make  an  intelligent  and  sagacious  adapta- 
tion of  means  to  ends.  John  Stuart  Mill  says,  in  reference  to 
woman:  'Her  intuitive  perception,  her  rapid  insight  into  pres- 
ent facts,  her  sensibility  to  the  present,  the  gravitation  of  her 
mind  to  the  real  and  actual,  her  habitual  dealing  with  things  as 
individuals  rather  than  groups,  her  greater  quickness  of  appre- 
hension, preeminently  fit  her  for  practice,  and  render  her  a  very 
valuable  aid  in  speculation,  as  a  corrective  to  man,  who  often 


ARGUMENT  FOR  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE.          253 

lets  his  faculties  go  astray  in  regions  not  peopled  with  real 
beings,  animate  or  inanimate,  even  idealized,  but  with  personified 
shadows,  created  by  the  illusions  of  metaphysics  or  by  the  mere 
entanglement  of  words.'  And  Mr.  Buckle,  justly  celebrated  as 
a  philosopher  and  historian,  in  his  work  on  the  'Influence  of 
Women  in  the  Progress  of  Knowledge, '  pays  this  tribute  to  my 
sex:  'That  women  think  quicker  than  men  because  they  are  more 
deductive  than  men,  is  a  proposition  which  all  may  not  relish, 
and  which  yet  may  be  proved  in  a  variety  of  ways.  Indeed, 
nothing  could  prevent  its  being  universally  acknowledged  except 
the  fact  that  the  remarkable  rapidity  with  which  women  think 
is  obscured  by  that  miserable,  that  contemptible,  that  prepos- 
terous system,  called  their  education,  by  which  valuable  things 
are  carefully  kept  from  them,  and  trifling  things  are  carefully 
taught  them  until  their  fine  and  nimble  minds  are  too  often 
irretrievably  ruined. '  ' 

"While  I  do  not  entirely  agree  with  these  great  men  in  their 
exalted  opinion  of  the  female  intellect,  I  am  still  willing  to  con- 
cede, ' '  said  Mr.  Notion,  ' '  that  there  is  some  measure  of  truth  in 
what  they  say.  Women  are  more  interested  in  the  concrete  than 
in  the  abstract.  They  are  more  creatures  of  time  and  sense  than 
are  men,  and  take  a  more  exquisite  pleasure  in  the  exercise  of 
their  physical  senses,  which  are  more  highly  developed,  more 
finely  organized  than  are  those  of  men.  Hence  it  is  that  women 
revel  in  color,  delight  in  perfume,  and  go  into  ecstacies  over 
music.  But  when  it  comes  to  the  principles  which  underly  all 
these  phenomena,  women  have  never  acquired  the  mastery  over 
them  which  men  have  achieved.  This  is  the  reason,  I  take  it,  why 
in  music  and  art  women — 

"Excuse  me,  Edward,  but  we  have  gone  over  that  ground, 
and  I  am  anxious  to  state  my  views  on  woman  suffrage.  As  I 
intimated  before,  we  want  the  ballot  that  we  may  use  it  to  repeal 
all  the  unjust,  man-made  laws  which  bear  so  heavily  upon  us  now. 
We  will  not  be  satisfied  until  the  mother  has  just  as  large  a  share. 
in  the  control  of  her  children  as  the  father  has;  until  the  wife  has 
an  equal  voice  with  the  husband  in  the  selection  of  a  home,  and 
in  the  management  of  the  community  property;  until,  in  a  word, 
every  vestige  of  unjust  legislation  is  swept  from  the  statute-books. 
And  now  I  wish  to  quote  from  Prof.  Edward  H.  Griggs, .  of 
Stanford  University,  who  well  says:  'In  a  few  words,  I  believe 
in  woman  suffrage  because  any  widening  of  the  interests  of  women 


254  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

tends  toward  better  results  in  marriage  and  family  life.  I  mean 
to  say,  that  is  the  most  important  reason.  The  ideal  woman  to 
me  is  the  eternal  womanly  woman,  but  a  woman  free  from 
traditional  limitations,  sympathetic,  refined,  and  loving,  but 
strong,  and  free,  and  independent,  capable  of  standing  alone,  and 
so  worthy  of  the  deepest  human  relations. '  ' 

"I  must  say,  Matilda,  that  I  think  your  own  arguments  are 
much  more  logical  and  convincing  than  those  of  Professor  Griggs. 
If  he  were  a  fair  representative  of  male  reasoning  power,  and  you 
of  female  logical  ability,  I  should  freely  admit  the  truth  of  all 
that  Mill  and  Buckle  have  to  say  of  woman's  mental  endowments. 
Fortunately,  however,  Professor  Powers,  until  lately  of  the  same 
university,  has  furnished  an  effective  antidote  to  all  the  loose 
phrases  and  glittering  generalities  of  the  professor  whom  you  so 
love  to  quote.  I  shall  refer  hereafter  to  what  Professor  Powers 
says  in  this  connection,  but  I  desire  now  to  show  you  how  incon- 
sistent Professor  Griggs  is.  He  says:  'The  human  ideal  tends 
to  integrate  in  a  higher  organic  unity  the  ideals  of  manhood  and 
womanhood.  Sex  ideals  tend  to  approach  each  other,  or  rather 
with  their  expansion  the  sphere  of  each  tends  to  overlap  and 
include  more  of  the  other.  Without  losing  the  positive  masculine 
virtues,  we  expect  a  measure  of  the  finer  feminine  qualities  in 
men;  and  with  no  sacrifice  of  essential  womanliness,  we  wish  for 
more  of  the  positive  qualities  of  character  in  women.'  In  almost 
the  same  breath  the  learned  professor  says,  '  Mere  likeness  between 
men  and  women  is  the  last  thing  to  be  desired.'  He  wants  men 
and  women  to  grow  more  alike,  and  yet  he  objects  to  their 
likeness. ' ' 

"Talking  about  woman's  sphere  reminds  me,"  said  Mrs. 
Notion,  "of  a  remark  made  by  the  lamented  Mrs.  Sarah  B. 
Cooper  in  addressing  the  Women's  Convention  recently  held  in 
this  city.  She  said:  'We  talk  about  woman's  sphere.  She 
never  had  a  sphere.  She  has  never  even  had  a  hemisphere.  At 
best  she  has  had  only  a  cranny  or  a  corner.  The  attempt  of 
human  history  has  been  to  carry  on  the  world  with  half  its  forces, 
like  an  attempt  to  sail  a  vessel  with  half  its  crew  under  the 
hatches.  Womanhood  as  a  spiritual  force  has  been  subordinated, 
if  not  repressed.  And  yet  the  Avoman  question  is  half  the  human 
question.  It  is  a  question  that  has  more  to  do  Avith  the  evolution 
of  the  higher  home  than  all  other  questions  combined.  Let  us 
never  forget  that  a  complete  humanity  is  at  once  both  masculine 
and  feminine— a  unity  in  duality.' ' 


ARGUMENT    FOR    WOMAN    Sl'FFRAUK.  255 

"All  of  which  means  in  the  last  analysis,"  said  Mr.  Notion, 
"that  women  have  worked  where  their  work  would  most  tell, 
where  they  alone  were  qualified  to  work — in  the  home,  while  men 
have  acted  as  their  protectors,  and  bravely  engaged  in  the  rude 
battles  of  life,  in  order  that  the  fireside,  where  woman  presided, 
and  children  gathered,  might  be  sacred  and  secure." 

"  There  you  go  again,  Edward.  You  will  never  get  over 
those  old  fogy  ideas  of  yours.  Don't  you  know  that  the  old- 
fashioned  woman  is  a  creature  of  the  past?  As  Miss  Sarah  M. 
Severance  says,  'We  have  long  been  tearfully  exhorted  to  be- 
come like  the  woman  of  old.  She  went  in  a  succession  of  swoons 
from  the  porch  to  the  altar,  was  revived  there  for  a  time  by  the 
aid  of  a  bottle  of  smelling  salts,  and  was  then  borne  out  to  her 
carriage  in  a  dead  faint,  so  to  embark  upon  the  sea  of  matrimony.' 
Most  of  us  now  have  to  get  along  without  carriages,  and  many  of 
us  have  learned  to  wear  bloomers  and  ride  the  bicycle,  while  those 
who  are  too  poor  to  afford  a  bicycle,  pride  themselves  on  their 
ability  to  walk.  No,  we  modern  women  are  not  the  languishing, 
lackadaisical,  sentimental  creatures  of  the  olden  time.  We  ride, 
swim,  fence,  shoot,  row,  play  lawn-tennis,  and  even  foot  ball,  and 
take  pretty  good  care  of  ourselves  in  a  crowd.  What  we  want 
now,  and  must  have,  is  the  right  to  vote  at  all  elections,  and  to 
hold  all  offices.  Now,  Edward,  I  have  said  my  say,  and  it  is 
your  turn. ' ' 


Mr.  Notion  Presents   His  Arguments  against 
Woman  Suffrage. 

"A  woman's  rank 

Lies  in  the  fulness  of  her  womanhood: 
-     Therein  alone  she  is  royal." 

— George  Eliot. 

1 '  The  very  first  thing  I  wish  to  say, ' '  began  Mr.  Notion,  ' '  is 
that  there  is  absolutely  no  force  In  the  contention  that  women 
have  a  right  to  the  elective  franchise.  No  one  has  a  right  to  it. 
It  has  not  been  conferred  upon  that  ground.  Suffrage  is  a 
responsibility  and  a  duty,  rather  than  a  right  or  privilege,  which 
the  law-making  power  imposes  upon  certain  restricted  classes  of 
persons,  not  for  their  own  special  benefit,  but  in  the  interest  of 
the  people  at  large.  The  question  of  who  shall  cast  the  ballot, 
is  more  one  of  expediency  than  of  right.  The  elective  franchise 
is  only  a  means  toward  an  end,  and  that  end  is  the  attainment  of 
justice  and  equity,  the  protection  of  individual  citizens  in  their 
natural  rights,  which  are  well  defined  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  to  be  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  I 
may  go  a  step  farther  and  say  that  the  mere  form  of  government 
is  also  a  matter  of  expediency.  Neither  monarchy  nor  republic  is 
right  per  se  and  essentially,  without  regard  to  existing  conditions. 
These  and  all  other  forms  of  government  are  methods  and  expe- 
dients for  the  accomplishment  of  that  which  is  unchangeable 
and  eternal,  namely,  justice  and  right.  The  best  government  is 
that  which  most  effectively  protects  the  greatest  proportion  of  its 
citizens  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  rights.  Under  certain  circum- 
stances a  monarchy  might  best  accomplish  this  underlying  object 
of  all  righteous  human  laws;  under  others,  a  republic  might  be 
preferable. ' ' 

"Then  you  don't  think  we  can  claim  the  elective  franchise -as 
a  right,"  said  Mrs.  Notion. 

"  Most  assuredly  not,"  replied  Mr.  Notion.  "Listen  to  what 
President  Martin  Kellogg,  of  the  University  of  California,  has  to 
(256) 


ARGUMENT   AGAINST    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE.  257 

say  on  this  point:  '  Political  rights  are  not  inherent.  Political 
privileges  are  not  necessarily  equal.  The  privilege  of  suffrage  is 
never  absolutely  universal;  otherwise  it  would  not  be  a  privilege. 
In  the  United  States  it  has  been  extended  to  many  who  are  man- 
ifestly unworthy  to  use  it.  AVe  have  come  in  this  country  to  the 
painful  conclusion  that  the  door  has  been  thrown  too  wide  open, 
or,  rather,  the  half-door  which  is  labeled  'male.'  If  we  could 
shut  out  the  ignorant,  the  worthless,  the  venal  men,  and  in  their 
place  call  in  high-minded  and  intelligent  women  of  our  commu- 
nity to  strengthen  the  forces  of  law  and  order,  of  purity,  of  true 
and  earnest  patriotism,  were  not  that  a  consummation  devoutly 
to  be  wished  ?  Let  these  intelligent,  high-minded  women  persuade 
us  that  the  time  for  such  an  exchange  has  really  come.  The 
whole  question  is  one  of  the  most  serious  consequence — not  a 
theme  for  easy  indifference.  It  is  a  broader  question  than  that  of 
political  equality  between  the  sexes.  So  you  see,  Matilda,  that 
the  question  is  not  to  be  settled  by  mere  declarations  of  equal 
rights,  or  on  general  principles  of  freedom,  liberty,  etc.,  but  that 
it  resolves  itself  into  an  inquiry  as  to  the  expediency  or  non- 
expediency  of  casting  this  great  responsibility  upon  the  members 
of  your  sex. ' ' 

' '  Ah, ' '  said  Mrs.  Notion,  ' '  I  begin  to  see  why  you  men  have 
taken  so  long  to  reach  a  conclusion  in  the  matter!" 

"And  now,  Matilda,  to  get  a  little  nearer  the  heart  of  the 
discussion,  I  am  of  the  opinion  that,  if  women  were  to  secure  all 
that  you  ask  for  them,  there  would  be  no  substantial  alteration  in 
the  existing  political  conditions  in  this  country.  The  various 
parties  would  retain  their  ascendency  in  those  localities  where 
they  now  enjoy  it,  and,  while  the  sum  total  of  votes  would  be 
largely  increased,  there  would  be  no  change  in  the  political  com- 
plexion of  the  different  states,  or  of  the  nation  as  a  whole." 

"Upon  what  do  you  base  that  opinion? "   asked  Mrs.  Notion. 

' '  In  the  first  place,  it  accords  with  a  common-sense  view  of  the 
situation,  for  you  know  as  well  as  I  do  that  most  of  your  lady 
friends  are  of  the  same  way  of  thinking  politically  as  their  male 
relatives;  and,  secondly,  it  has  been  shown  by  actual  results  in 
those  localities  where  the  women  vote.  In  Colorado,  for  instance, 
the  Republican  party,  or  the  silver  wing  of  it,  has  the  same  major- 
ity with  female  suffrage  that  it  possessed  without  it. ' ' 

"It  seems  to  me,"  said  Mrs.  Notion,  "that  the  matter  has 
very  little  significance,  even  if  you  are  right  in  your  contention. 
17 


DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

We  do  not  pretend  that  we  will  defeat  any  particular  party,  or 
reverse  existing  political  conditions,  that  is,  so  far  as  the  ascend- 
ency of  any  special  party  is  concerned.  But  we  do  claim  that 
we  will  work  a  revolution  in  the  parties  themselves,  that  we  will 
make  them  cleaner,  purer,  and  better  in  every  way.  The  Repub- 
lican women  will  accomplish  this  for  their  party,  and  the  women 
of  Democratic  and  Populistic  tendencies  will  bring  about  the  same 
condition  of  affairs  in  their  respective  organizations. ' ' 

"You  say  nothing  of  the  Prohibition  party,  Matilda." 

' '  When  the  women  vote, ' '  laughed  Mrs.  Notion,  ' '  it  will  have 
no  cause  to  exist,  for  we  will  put  strong  prohibition  planks  in  the 
platforms  of  all  the  other  parties. ' ' 

"I  fear,  also,"  said  Mr.  Notion,  "that  the  giving  of  the 
ballot  to  women  would  introduce  an  element  of  discord  into  family 
life.  It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  husband  and  wife  would 
always  agree  in  their  political  opinions,  and  where  their  partisan 
views  were  divergent,  there  would  ever  be  the  possibility  of  antago- 
nism and  strife,  especially  during  the  heat  of  a  great  campaign  like 
the  present  one,  when  party  feeling  runs  high. ' ' 

"Why,  Edward,  I  understood  you  to  say  a  few  moments  ago 
that  women  would  generally  be  of  the  same  political  bent  as 
their  male  relatives!  Isn't  it  a  little  inconsistent  with  that  asser- 
tion for  you  now  to  claim  that  husbands  and  wives  woidd  often 
differ  in  their  politics,  and  quarrel  over  their  differences  ?  ' ' 

"I  think  not,"  replied  Mr.  Notion.  "I  did  not  say  that 
women  would  belong  to  the  same  party  as  their  husbands.  In 
fact,  I  have  the  authority  of  Miss  Susan  B.  Anthony  for  saying 
that  women,  like  men,  usually  inherit  their  political  proclivities 
from  their  parents.  I  heard  her  make  this  statement  in  address- 
ing the  Populist  State  Convention  at  Sacramento,  in  1896,  and  she 
said  it  to  prove  that  wives  would  not  vote  as  their  husbands  told 
them  to,  but  would  register  their  own  will  at  the  polls.  Now,  if 
Miss  Anthony  be  correct  in  this  declaration,  it  would  follow  that 
husbands  and  waves  would  frequently  become  involved  in  fierce 
and  acrimonious  political  controversies;  and  such  a  state  of  things 
would  be  exceedingly  prejudicial  to  domestic  happiness  and  the 
permanence  of  the  marriage  tie. ' ' 

' '  Why  couldn'  t  they  discuss  matters  good-naturedly,  as  we  do  ?" 
inquired  Mrs.  Notion. 

"I  am  sorry  to  say,  Matilda,  that  the  rank  and  file  of  women 
are  not  capable  of  retaining  their  composure  and  mental  equilib- 


ARGUMENT    AGAINST    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE.  259 

riuin  like  you.  The  average  woman  is  not  so  well  balanced  or  so 
amiable,  and  the  average  man  does  not  brook  with  patience  any 
pronounced  opposition  to  his  pet  political  opinions.  But  one  of 
the  most  serious  objections  to  female  suffrage  is  that  it  would  tend 
to  divert  woman  from  her  home  duties,  which  are  certainly 
sufficiently  exacting  and  important  to  demand  her  entire  atten- 
tion. As  she  permitted  herself  to  be  more  and  more  withdrawn 
from  her  high  domestic  offices  as  wife  and  mother,  and  to  become 
more  and  more  absorbed  in  the  interests,  occupations,  and  excite- 
ments of  politics,  she  would  become  less  domestic  in  her  tastes; 
for  I  assure  you  that  the  quiet  routine  of  home  life  and  the 
sensational  and  exciting  affairs  of  politics  are  absolutely  incom- 
patible with  each  other.  As  the  woman  grew  to  be  more  of  the 
politician  she  would  inevitably  become  less  of  the  wife  and 
mother. ' ' 

"But  you  assume,"  said  Mrs.  Notion,  "that  the  sphere  of 
politics  would  continue  just  as  it  is;  that  it  would  not  be  greatly 
changed  by  the  introduction  of  the  feminine  element.  There  I 
think  you  err  greatly.  I  believe  that  women  would  radically 
alter  the  present  political  methods  and  processes,  and  that  the 
excitement  and  corruption  which  are  now  so  intimately  associated 
with  political  affairs,  would  be  altogether  eliminated  by  the  entry 
of  women  into  the  governmental  arena. ' ' 

"On  the  contrary,"  replied  Mr.  Notion,  "I  believe  that  with 
the  advent  of  women,  there  would  be  greater  political  excitement, 
chicanery,  and  dishonesty  than  ever.  Men  would  be  more  mad- 
dened by  political  strife  and  competition  than  they  are  now,  and 
the  proverbially  dirty  pool  of  politics  would  be  even  dirtier  than 
at  present." 

"Your  belief,  Edward,  is  certainly  not  very  complimentary 
to  the  purifying  power  of  virtuous  womanhood.  You  are  evi- 
dently under  the  impression  that  we  would  carry  with  us  into 
politics  all  sorts  of  vices  and  villainies." 

"No,"  said  Mr.  Notion,  "  but  we  have  had  already  a  slight 
sample  of  what  unscrupulous  women  can  do  in  legislative  assem- 
blies. We  are  somewhat  familiar  with  the  wiles  and  ways  of  the 
female  lobbyist  and  political  adventuress.  She  is  not  a  new  figure 
in  congressional  halls.  We  have  had  also  some  experience  with 
the  female  office-seeker,  and  are  firmly  convinced  that 'she  has  not 
exerted  a  purifying  influence  upon  politics.  Matilda,  you  have 
no  idea  to  what  lengths  women  will  often  go  in  order  to  gain  some 


DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

coveted  official  position.  To  speak  plainly,  they  will  sometimes 
sell  their  virtue  for  a  place." 

"Yes,"  replied  Mrs.  Notion,  "but  the  male  politician  is  uie 
buyer,  and  if  women  instead  of  men  had  the  giving  of  these 
places,  female  virtue  would  not  be  the  price  demanded  for  them." 

' '  You  assume  too  much,  Matilda,  and  forget  that  the  women 
who  would  have  the  patronage  to  bestow,  would  need  first  to  pro- 
cure it  in  the  slimy  pool  of  politics.  No,  I  can  not  bear  the 
thought  of  any  female  relative  of  mine  plunging  into  all  this 
iniquity.  If  politics  be  hopelessly  corrupt,  be  it  so,  but  let  me 
solace  myself  with  the  thought  that,  though  my  country  be  on 
the  way  to  destruction,  my  home  is  still  secure.  As  has  been 
\vell  said,  '  we  may  never  know  how  much  the  stability  of  nations 
depends  on  keeping  one-half  of  the  race  free  from  the  periodical 
madness  of  party  strife,  and  making  it  possible  for  man,  after  the 
heat  of  party,  to  find  peace  in  the  society  of  wife  and  daughters, 
who  are  calm,  and  all  untouched  by  the  frenzy  of  the  caucus,  the 
convention,  and  the  polls.'  And  then,  you  must  not  forget  how 
peculiarly  susceptible  women  are  to  great  popular  excitements. 
I  have  referred  to  that  before,  and  merely  remind  you  of  it  in 
this  connection." 

"But  I  denied  the  assertion  when  you  made  it,"  said  Mrs. 
Notion. 

"True,  Matilda.  I  believe  it  still,  however,  and  repeat  it 
for  what  it  is  worth.  Then,  again,  there  is  the  large  increase  of 
the  purchasable  vote  which  would  immediately  result  from  the 
concession  of  the  ballot  to  women.  Thousands  of  the  worst 
women  in  the  state  would  avail  themselves  of  the  opportunity, 
as  venal  men  now  do,  to  sell  their  votes  to  the  highest  bidder. 
In  many  instances  the  men  who  now  make  merchandise  of  their 
franchise,  would  simply  increase  their  income  by  bartering  their 
wives'  votes  also." 

"O  Edward,  I  can  not  believe  that  the  vilest  woman  in 
California  would  so  far  debase  herself  as  to  sell  so  precious  a 
privilege!  No,  we  have  had  to  fight  too  hard  and  wait  too  long 
for  political  recognition,  to  sell  it  for  a  few  paltry  dollars  when 
it  is  at  last  accorded  us." 

"And  another  argument  against  female  suffrage,"  said  Mr. 
Notion,  ' '  is'  that  women  would  be  in  duty  bound  to  hold  them- 
sdves  in  readiness  to  join  the  army  and  navy,  to  act  as  members 
of  the  fire  department,  and  to  do  jury  duty,  etc." 


ARGUMENT    AGAINST    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE.  2(H 

"I  have  been  waiting  for  you  to  say  something  like  that,  " 
exclaimed  Mrs.  Notion.  "I  admit  that  women  have  their  appro- 
priate part  in  war  as  in  peace,  and  we  have  never  shirked  it  in 
the  past,  nor  would  we  in  the  future.  I  spoke  the  other  evening 
more  in  pleasantry  than  otherwise,  about  the  prospect  of  women 
being  able  to  wage  battle  as  well  as  men  in  consequence  of 
the  progress  of  invention.  Seriously,  however,  I  do  not  con- 
template such  a  possibility.  But  in  every  war  we  have  faithfully 
responded  to  the  call  of  the  nation  for  the  services  of  her  chil- 
dren. Both  in  the  Civil  and  Spanish  Wars  we  made  a  glorious 
record.  To  quote  from  Mrs.  Blake:  'In  every  town  and  village, 
in  every  home  in  the  land,  willing  fingers  toiled  early  and  late 
for  the  soldiers.  Women  met  together  to  organize  their  labors, 
and  in  sanitary  fairs  raised  $13,000,000,  but  this  was  a  mere 
nothing  compared  to  the  enormous  amount  of  money's  worth 
that  was  never  computed,  and  that  was  sent  with  constant  devo- 
tion from  the  homes  of  the  nation  to  the  army.  Soldiers  who 
went  through  these  campaigns  have  said  that  the  comforts 
supplied  by  the  women  saved  thousands  of  lives.'  In  the 
hospital  and  on  the  battle-field  we  did  noble  service,  and  often 
risked  our  lives  to  bring  comfort  and  hope  to  the  wounded  and 
dying.  But  for  all  this  we  have  neither  asked  nor  received  any 
pensions.  Mother  Bickerdyke,  who  gave  the  best  four  years 
of  her  life  to  the  succor  of  the  wounded  in  the  army  of  the 
west,  was  an  old  woman  the  last  I  heard  of  her,  earning  her 
living  at  the  wash-tub,  and  Clara  Barton,  Dorothea  Dix,  and 
other  heroines  of  the  battle-field  have  been  similarly  unrewarded. 
Please  do  not  say  anything  more  about  women's  inability  to 
perform  military  service,  as  an  argument  against  woman  suffrage." 

"All  right,"  responded  Mr.  Notion  smilingly,  "I  promise 
not  to  do  so.  But  I  am  certain  that  it  would  be  a  bad  tiling  for 
the  women  themselves  to  hold  offices,  and  to  come  prominently 
before  the  public.  Somehow  celebrity,  notoriety,  and  constant 
exposure  to  the  public  gaze,  seem  to  harden  the  members  of  your 
sex,  and  impair  that  femininity  which  is  their  greatest  charm. 
As  George  Eliot,  one  of  your  literary  heroines,  says,  'The 
happiest  women,  like  the  happiest  nations,  have  no  history.' 
And  then  Alphonse  Karr  declares,  putting  the  idea  rather 
extremely,  I  admit,  'A  woman  who  writes  commits  two  sins: 
she  increases  the  number  of  books,  and  decreases  the  number  of 
women. ' ' ' 


262  DOMixnr   nrioi.s. 

"How  utterly  absurd!"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Notion  contemptu- 
ously. 

"I  grant  it,"  replied  Mr.  Notion,  "and  yet  there  is  some 
truth  in  the  assertion,  and  it  is  not  intended  to  be  taken  literally. 
The  women  who  have  attained  a  world-wide  reputation  have 
generally  admitted  that  they  had  to  pay  a  fearful  penalty  for 
their  success,  and  have  expressed  something  like  envy  for  their 
happier  and  more  obscure  sisters.  Truly,  as  Lemennais  says, 
'Woman  is  a  flower  that  breathes  its  perfume  in  the  shade  only.' 
And  I  more  than  half  agree  with  Goldsmith  in  the  opinion  that 
'the  modest  virgin,  the  prudent  wife,  or  the  careful  matron,  are 
much  more  serviceable  in  life  than  petticoated  philosophers, 
blustering  heroines,  or  virago  queens.'  Nor  do  I  think  that 
Corneille  is  to  be  despised  for  saying  that  'when -'a  woman  has 
the  gift  of  silence,  she  possesses  a  quality  above  the  vulgar;  it  is 
a  gift  Heaven  seldom  bestows;  without  a  little  miracle  it  can  not 
be  accomplished;  and  nature  suffers  violence  when  Heaven  puts  a 
woman  in  the  humor  of  observing  silence.' ' 

"Oh,  if  that's  the  case,"  pouted  Mrs.  Notion,  "I  had  better 
keep  my  mouth  shut  all  the  time,  and  not  presume  to  express  an 
opinion  unless  I  am  asked  to  do  so  by  my  lord  and  master!" 

"Not  at  all,  my  dear,"  said  Mr.  Notion  mildly.  "The  idea 
is  not  that  women  should  be  silent,  but  that  they  should  be 
capable  of  being  so,  and  I  am  sure  you  possess  that  gift  in  a  high 
degree.  Corneille  undoubtedly  had  in  mind  the  gossiping, 
chattering,  voluble  busybodies  who  are  a  disgrace  to  their  sex. 
and  not  the  refined  and  discreet  lady,  who  speaks  to  the  purpose, 
and  only  when  the  occasion  requires  it.  I  merely  quoted  his 
sentiment  to  point  my  assertion  that  the  choicest  womanly  charms 
grow  dim  and  fade  away  in  the  garish  light  of  publicity." 

"But  we  want  the  ballot,"  said  Mrs.  Notion,  "for  our  own 
protection,  and  insist  upon  our  right  to  hold  office  as  a  means 
toward  our  social  emancipation." 

"Women  are  no  longer  in  any  sort  of  bondage,  Matilda,  that 
they  should  cry  for  emancipation.  You  are  not  the  sla\v>  of 
men.  Like  us  you  are  largely  restrained  by  your  environment, 
and  it  is  often  irksome.  In  fact,  the  interests  of  the  sexes  are 
identical.  Woman's  condition  is  parallel  with  that  of  man,  and 
she  is  now,  and  I  hope  ever  will  be,  his  confidant,  and  the  sharer 
ol  his  joys  and  sorrows,  rather  than  his  fierce  opponent  and 
competitor.  You  have  your  own  peculiar  place  to  fill,  your  own 


ARGUMENT    AGAINST    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE.  263 

peculiar  work  to  do,  and,  as  Gail  Hamilton  remarks,  for  a  woman 
to  attempt  a  man's  work  is  'like  taking  a  Damascus  blade  to 
hew  timber  withal.'  Mrs.  F.  C.  Croly  wisely  says:  'It  is  a 
great  temptation  in  these  days  of  fresh  activities  for  Avomeu  to 
leave  the  more  confined  field  of  home  duty,  and  take  a  place 
among  the  workers  in  apparently  more  extended  spheres  of  use- 
fulness. But  it  is,  in  most  instances,  a  mere  exchange  of  a 
birthright  for  a  mess  of  pottage.  The  glory  is  very  poor — very 
evanescent;  the  struggles,  the  pains,  the  sorrows,  the  heart- 
breaks, in  full  measure;  the  loss  of  sweet  home  associations  and 
memories,  very  real  and  very  sure. '  I  believe  with  Huxley  that 
'  women  will  find  their  place,  and  it  will  neither  be  that  which 
they  have  held,  nor  that  to  which  some  of  them  aspire.  Nature's 
old  Salic  law  will  not  be  repealed,  and  no  change  of  dynasty  will 
be  effected. '  This  being  true,  my  dear,  why  should  so  many  of 
your  fair  sisterhood  bruise  their  pretty  faces  against  the  bars  of 
the  inevitable?  The.  limitations  which  hedge  you  in  are  in  no 
sense  artificial,  or  legislative,  but  are  those  of  nature.  You  may 
obtain  the  ballot,  and  doubtless  will  eventually,  but  it  will  surely 
prove  a  disappointment,  and,  though  it  glitter  now,  it  will  turn 
to  dust  and  ashes  in  its  realization." 

"  Victor  Hugo  says,"  replied  Mrs.  Notion,  "that,  though  men 
have  sight,  women  have  insight,  and  hence  I  can  not  accept  your 
gloomy  views  of  the  results  of  woman  suffrage.  I  am  sure  that 
our  political  aspirations  are  true  and  good,  and  in  perfect  accord 
Avith  those  deep  principles  which  make  for  righteousness  and  real 
progress.  You  are  conservative,  even  timid,  and"  view  with 
apprehension  anything  Avhich  jars  on  your  customs  and  habits 
of  thought.  But',  to  my  mind,  there  is  nothing  inherently  or 
necessarily  incongruous  in  the  idea  of  a  Avomanly  politician." 

"  It  is  women  Avho  are  conservative,"  Matilda,  and  for  that  I 
cite  no  less  an  authority  than  Lester  F.  AVard  in  his  able  work, 
'The  Psychic  Factors  of  Civilization.'  And  as  to  Avomen  in 
politics,  I  can  conceive  of  a  Avoman  politician,  but  not  of 
a  Avomanly  one.  Nor  do  I  think  that  the  experience  of 
thousands  of  years  should  be  lightly  set  aside.  You  are  ask- 
ing us  to  go  very  far  indeed  into  the  untried  and  unknoAvn,  Avhen 
you  demand  from  us  the  ballot,  and  you  should  not  complain 
because  Ave  enter  untrodden  paths  Avith  the  utmost  caution  and 
reluctance.  Why  are  you  not  satisfied  to  be  your  own  SAveet 
selves,  and  leave  to  us  men  the  rude  business  of  political  strife  ? 


264  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

It  seems  to  me  that  beueatli  all  this  clamor  for  the  ballot,  there  is 
a  half-unconscious  desire  on  the  part  of  many  of  the  women  who 
insist  on  suffrage,  to  imitate  men.  In  this  connection  I  feel  like 
saying,  with  Theophile  Gautier,  '  I  can  not  see  why  women  are 
so  desirous  of  imitating  men.  I  could  understand  the  wish  to  be 
a  boa-constrictor,  a  lion,  or  an  elephant;  but  a  man! — that  sur- 
passes my  comprehension.' ' 

' '  He  evidently  has  a  very  poor  opinion  of  his  own  sex, ' '  said 
Mrs.  Xotion.  "In  that  regard  he  reminds  me  of  Lady  Mary 
"Wortley  Montagu,  who  said,  'It  goes  far  toward  reconciling  me 
to  being  a  woman,  when  I  reflect  that  I  am  thus  in  no  danger  of 
ever  marrying  one.'  ' 

"Yes,  Matilda,  every  true  man  has  a  high  regard  for  woman- 
hood, and  hence  it  is  that  we  protest  so  strenuously  against  your 
engaging  in  any  sphere  of  action  which  would  tend  to  lower  you 
in  our  esteem.  A\re  can  not  bear  to  have  our  feminine  ideals 
rudely  shattered.  While  I  do  not  agree  with  the  views  presented 
by  Karl  Heinzen  in  his  work  on  '  The  Rights  of  "Women, '  and 
thoroughly  detest  its  general  tone,  I  can  not  refrain  from  quoting 
briefly  from  him  in  this  connection.  He  says:  'We  men  have 
nothing  to  surrender  to  you  women  by  which  you  could  improve, 
beautify,  and  ennoble  yourselves;  everything  good,  beautiful, 
and  noble  you  possess  in  your  truly  humane  hearts,  your  fine 
feeling,  and  your  susceptible  minds.'  And  now,  Matilda,  I 
desire  to  urge  another  objection  to  the  possession  on  the  part  of 
women  of  the  full  elective  franchise,  and  that  is  that  it  would 
injure  them* morally.  I  have  tried  to  show  that  it  would  impair 
your  attractiveness,  and  divest  you  of  your  peculiar  fascinations. 
I  now  claim  that  there  are  cogent  moral  reasons  which  forbid 
your  engaging  extensively  in  public  affairs.  As  is  universally 
admitted,  the  pursuit  of  politics  is  generally  demoralizing,  and 
the  man  who  takes  an  active  part  in  partisan  contests,  and 
becomes  a  professional  politician  without  succumbing  to  the  temp- 
tations which  beset  his  kind,  is  a  rare  exception  to  the  rule.  In 
the  great  periodical  contests  for  control  of  the  government,  the 
direction  of  its  policies,  and  the  bestowal  of  its  vast  patronage, 
motives  of  expediency  come  prominently  to  the  front,  and  great 
principles  of  public  virtue  and  patriotism  are  relegated  to  the 
rear.  The  absorbing  question  in  struggles  of  this  kind,  is  not  so 
much  what  is  right  and  best  for  the  interests  of  the  great  majority 
of  citizens,  but  what  will  secure  the  largest  number  of  votes,  and 
thus  be  most  likely  to  win  at  the  polls.'' 


AIHJUMKN'T    AGAINST    WOMAN"    SUFFRAGE.  Zv)O 

"I  am  prepared  to  admit  all  this,"  said  Mrs.  Notion,  "but  I 
fail  to  see  its  bearing  upon  the  subject  of  woman  suffrage." 

' '  Only  this, ' '  replied  Mr.  Notion ;  ' '  the  constant  contem- 
plation of  expediencies,  balancing  of  probabilities,  manipulation  of 
prejudices,  and  avoidance  of  moral  issues,  inevitably  tend  to 
develop  certain  qualities  which  are  not  highly  esteemed  in  the 
human  character.  These  are  dishonesty,  insincerity,  untruth- 
fulness,  treachery,  and  cowardice.  I  regret  exceedingly  that  it 
should  be  the  case,  but  the  fact  is  that  these  qualities  are  much 
more  likely  to  succeed  in  politics  than  their  opposites.  The  good 
men  who  spurn  any  moral  compromise,  and  loathe  deceit  and 
trickery,  rarely  receive  political  consideration,  and  when  they  are 
recognized,  it  is  only  to  give  tone  and  character  to  the  ticket  on 
which  they  are  placed.  They  are  commonly  known  as  political 
figureheads,  and  are  generally  placed  in  positions  where  they  will 
not  be  able  to  seriously  interfere  with  the  schemes  of  the  bosses. 
Now  is  it  probable,  Matilda,  that  the  entry  of  women  into  the 
field  of  political  controversy  and  conflict  would  reverse,  or  even 
materially  change,  these  conditions?  If  not,  and  I  am  sure  that 
existing  conditions  would  continue,  the  good  women  would  be 
discounted  just  as  largely  in  politics  as  are  the  good  men.  They 
would  not  be  able  to  compete  with  the  flashy,  unprincipled,  and 
unscrupulous  members  of  their  sex,  and  a  very  slight  experience 
would  so  thoroughly  convince  them  of  this  fact  that  they  would 
retire  to  the  privacy  of  their  homes,  leaving  the  women  of  elastic 
consciences,  showy  exterior,  and  light  and  easy  virtue  in  posses- 
sion of  the  political  battle-field.  The  result  would  thus  be  to 
introduce  an  additional  element  of  corruption  and  immorality 
into  the  realm  of  politics,  rather  than  to  elevate  and  purify  it. 
But,  doubtless,  multitudes  of  women  who  constituted  the  mean 
between  these  t\vo  extremes,  and  who  were  not  vile  adventuresses, 
on  the  one  hand,  or  high-minded,  incorruptible  matrons,  on  the 
other,  would  engage  enthusiastically  in  politics,  and  the  morals 
of  these  would  suffer  dreadfully.  The  nominations  would  still  be 
largely  controlled  by  single  individuals,  as  they  now  are,  and  the 
aspiring  female  politician  who  wished  to  run  for  office,  would  be 
compelled  to  go  to  the  boss,  and  beseech  his  favorable  considera- 
tion. That  he  would  not  be  governed  in  his  treatment  of  such  a 
suppliant  by  motives  of  the  loftiest  honor  and  purity,  you  may 
rest  assured,  and  you  may  also  be  certain  that  she  would  not 
receive  the  nomination  without  making  moral  concessions  to  the 


266  POMKSTK     nri-:i.>. 

boss  which  would  be  a  full  equivalent  of  any  that  a  male  office- 
seeker  could  otter." 

"But  suppose  the  bos?  was  a  woman ?"  queried  Mr*.  Notion. 

"I  am  willing  to  look  at  the  matter  from  that  standpoint, 
also,"  replied  Mr.  Notion.  "We  have  no  right  to  assume  that 
a  female  boss  would  be  any  better  than  a  male  boss,  and  we  aH 
know  that  a  bad  woman  is  infinitely  worse  than  a  bad  man;  for, 
to  quote  from  Tennyson,  '  Men  at  most  differ  as  heaven  and 
earth;  but  women,  worst  and  best,  as  heaven  and  hell.'  This 
being  the  case,  I  would  not  be  willing  to  run  the  slightest  ri>k  of 
placing  the  political  control  of  this  or  any  other  community  in 
the  hands  of  an  abandoned  woman,  nor  should  I  think  that  yon 
or  any  other  virtuous,  pure-minded  wife  and  mother  would  even 
tolerate  or  endure  the  possibility  of  such  a  consummation." 

"I  deny,  Edward,  that  bad  women  are  any  worse  than  bad 
men." 

"  I  think,  Matilda,  that  I  have  touched  upon  that  point  suffi- 
ciently already,  and  even  the  prospect  of  having  a  female  !><>" 
who  is  no  worse  than  her  male  predecessor  is  not  so  entrancing  as 
to  induce  me  to  try  the  experiment.  But  the  mere  effort  on  the 
part  of  women  to  gain  public  place,  would  deteriorate  their  moral 
fiber.  You  admire  Madame  I)e  Stael.  Listen  to  what  she  says 
on  this  point:  'Women's  happiness  suffers  by  every  kind  of  per- 
sonal ambition.  When  they  strive  to  please  solely  that  they  may 
be  loved,  when  this  sweet  hope  is  the  only  motive  of  their  actions, 
they  are  employed  more  in  perfecting  than  in  exhibiting  them- 
selves, more  in  forming  their  minds  for  the  happiness  of  one  than 
the  admiration  of  all;  but  when  they  aim  at  celebrity,  their 
attempts,  as  well  as  their  successes,  destroy  that  sentiment  which, 
under  different  names,  must  always  be  the  destiny  of  women.' 
And  now,  Matilda,  permit  me  to  urge  another  reason  why  women 
should  not  ask  for  political  power.  You  have,  even  under  present 
conditions,  a  controlling  voice  in  every  question  which  concerns 
and  interests  the  people  of  the  country.  As  JCmerson  remarks. 
'Men  are  what  their  mothers  made  them,'  and  hence  it  is  thai 
the  mothers  of  our  nation  have  it  in  their  power  now  to  so  mould 
and  shape  the  characters  and  dispositions  of  their  sons  as  to 
determine  the  future  of  the  country  for  generations  to  come. 
You  may  take  it  for  granted  that  the  men  who  now  hold  high 
the  banner  of  patriotism,  who  embody  all  the  virtues  in  their 
own  characters,  and  who  stand  erect  and  unshaken  amidst  all  the 


ARGUMENT    AGAINST    WOMAN    SUFFRAGE.  ?67 

of  temptation  and  storms  of  popular  excitement,  owe 
their  moral  greatness  to  their  mothers.  If  I  were  inclined  to 
doubt  this  proposition,  the  facts  which  you  presented  in  two  of 
our  previous  talks  about  the  influence  exerted  upon  great  men  in 
all  ages  by  their  mothers,  would  prevent  me  from  doing  so. 
This  being  true,  woman  should  not  abdicate  her  exalted  position, 
renounce  her  glorious  destiny,  or  step  down  from  her  lofty 
pedestal,  to  enter  the  ignoble  strifes  of  partisan  politics.  As 
De  Segur  tersely  puts  it,  'Men  make  laws;  women  make  man- 
ners.' Let  woman,  then,  continue  to  occupy  the  seat  of  power, 
and  not  humiliate  and  lower  herself  in  the  estimation  of  her  sons 
by  engaging  in  the  vulgar  scramble  for  office." 

"Isn't  it  passing  strange,"  inquired  Mrs.  Notion,  "if  we 
have  so  potent  an  influence,  and  have  predetermined  the  political 
course  of  our  sons,  that  they  should  be  so  unwilling  to  grant  our 
request  when  we  ask  for  equal  suffrage  ?  ' ' 

' '  In  the  first  place, ' '  replied  Mr.  Notion,  ' '  admitting,  for  the 
sake  of  the  argument,  that  the  good  women  of  the  country  are 
really  anxious  to  obtain  the  elective  franchise,  I  insist  that  their 
male  relatives  in  denying  it  to  them  are  not  at  all  inconsistent  or 
unloving.  Believing,  as  they  do,  that  the  possession  of  such  a 
power  would  be  prejudicial  to  the  highest  welfare  of  their  sisters, 
wives,  and  daughters,  they  are  not  only  justified  in  withholding  it, 
but  would  be  recreant  to  their  duty  and  unfaithful  to  their  trust, 
if  they  were  to  weakly  concede  it.  But,  in  the  second  place,  I 
deny  that  any  large  proportion  of  the  intelligent,  refined,  and 
virtuous  women  of  America  really  want  the  ballot.  I  am  con- 
vinced, on  the  contrary,  that  the  vast  majority  of  them  are 
heartily  opposed  to  equal  suffrage,  and  sincerely  deprecate  the 
constant  agitation  of  the  question.  The  fact  that  only  7,000  of 
the  women  of  the  United  States  can  be  induced  to  join  the 
National  Equal  Suffrage  organization,  proves  conclusively  to  my 
mind  that  this  is  so." 

"  It  is  not  to  be  expected,"  said  Mrs.  Notion,  "that  after  long 
ages  of  oppression  and  servitude  more  or  less  complete,  the  great 
masses  of  the  Avomen  of  any  country  would  all  at  once  awake  to 
a  realization  of  their  rights.  In  the  very  nature  of  things,  only 
the  most  advanced  and  most  thoughtful  of  our  women  appreciate 
and  comprehend  the  true  status  of  womanhood,  and  have  the 
courage  to  believe  that  unjust  prejudices,  customs,  and  laws  can 
be  so  overcome  as  to  secure  to  women  the  inherent  political  and 


268  DOMESTIC    DUELS. 

social  rights  which  belong  to  them  as  human  beings,  irrespective 
of  all  distinctions  of  sex,  race,  color,  creed,  or  nationality." 

"I  know,  Matilda,  that  this  is  a  favorite  assumption  of  the 
advocates  of  female  suffrage,  but  I  deny  that  they  are  any  more 
intelligent  or  thoughtful  than  a  much  greater  number  of  women 
who  repudiate  all  proposals  to  clothe  them  with  the  elective 
franchise,  and  who  deny  to  the  equal  suffragists  their  assumed 
authority  to  act  in  any  sense  as  their  representatives. ' ' 

"I  think,  Edward,  that  the  argument  that  women  don't  want 
suffrage,  is  about  the  weakest  of  all.  I  have  noticed,  however, 
that  it  is  the  favorite  plea  of  our  opponents  when  we  have  driven 
them  from  their  other  positions.  It  is  their  last  ditch,  so  to 
speak,  and  I  feel  rather  encouraged  than  otherwise  to  hear  you 
advance  it,  for  I  take  it  as  an  indication  that  you  doubt  the 
validity  of  your  previous  arguments,  and  seek  to  reeuforce  them 
by  this  contention." 

' '  There  you  err,  Matilda  ;  for  I  do  not  attach  very  much 
importance  to  this  point,  but  merely  mention  it  as  a  patent  cir- 
cumstance which  has  some  bearing  upon  the  discussion.  After 
all,  the  strongest  possible  objection  to  female  suffrage  is  that  it 
would  interfere  with  the  great  wifely  and  maternal  functions  of 
your  sex.  And  right  here,  permit  me  to  quote  briefly  from 
Prof.  H.  H.  Powers,  formerly  of  the  chair  of  economies,  Stan- 
ford University.  He  says  :  '  The  social  necessity  that  is  laid 
upon  woman  is  that  she  shall  perpetuate  the  race  under  conditions 
compatible  with  the  social  order.  Individuals  may  be  excused, 
and  may  solve  the  woman  problem  for  themselves,  but  their  solu- 
tion will  have  no  permanent  social  significance.  It  can  not  be 
too  frequently  or  strenuously  insisted  that  the  woman  question  is 
not  solved  till  it  is  solved  for  married  women.  Any  theory  which 
tells  a  woman  to  take  her  choice  between  marriage  and  something 
else,  not  only  does  not  solve  the  main  problem,  but  it  may  even 
retard  its  solution.  The  rights  which  society  can  feasibly  grant, 
to  women  as  a  class  must  therefore  be  such  as  will  not  interfere 
with  witelmod  and  motherhood.  Even  the  privileges  granted  to 
exceptional  individuals  can  not  safely  be  such  as  will  tempt  any 
considerable  number  of  desirable  women  to  choose  them  in  pref- 
erence to  marriage.  The  inevitable  result  of  such  a  tendency 
would  be  the  perpetuation  of  society  from  inferior  stock,  and  a 
setback  to  progress.'  ' 

"The  professor  is  at  least  candid,"  said  Mrs.  Notion,  "in 
fact,  cruelly  and  almost  brutally  so.  His  position,  after  all,  is 


ARGUMENT   AGAINST    WOMAN   SUFFRAGE.  269 

only  a  restatement  of  that  of  the  ancient  Greeks.  Like  them  he 
regards  women  as  mere  human  machines  for  breeding  purposes, 
and  believes  with  Demosthenes  that  '  the  married  woman  is  an 
instrument  for  the  procreation  of  legitimate  children  and  the 
management  of  the  household.'  I  differ  radically  from  that 
view,  and  see  no  better  reason  for  considering  the  rights  and 
functions  of  women  from  that  single  standpoint  than  those  of 
men.  But,  Edward,  I  am  growing  weary,  and,  if  you  have 
made  all  the  points  you  wish,  I  shall  be  glad  to  close  our  conver- 
sation. In  fact,  we  have  been  talking  about  women  so  long  that 
I  am  heartily  tired  of  the  subject,  and  long  to  talk  about  other 
and  entirely  different  topics.  For  the  past  week  or  two  my 
dreams  have  been  about  nothing  but  women,  and  instead  of 
getting  the  rest  which  I  so  much  needed  during  sleep,  I  have 
exhausted  myself  with  ceaseless  argumentation  on  the  woman 
question.  How  has  it  been  with  you?  Have  you,  too,  been 
dreaming  over  again  our  evening  talks,  and  drearily  and  monoto- 
nously retracing  in  your  sleep  the  ground  we  have  traversed  in 
our  waking  hours  ?  ' ' 

"Not  a  bit  of  it,"  replied  Mr.  Notion.  "Our  little  chats 
Lave  served  rather  to  make  my  sleep  more  profound  and  refresh- 
ing. But  it  will  never  do  to  exhaust  your  mind  by  keeping  it 
working  too  long  in  this  one  channel  of  action,  and  after  this  we 
will  talk  about  other  things." 

"You  are  very  kind,  Edward,  but  I  suppose  you  will  be 
surer  than  ever  now  that  men's  minds  are  stronger  than  those  of 
women." 

"No,  darling,  not  surer,  for  that  could  hardly  be.  Like 
Plato,  I  have  always  believed  that  women  are  the  same  as  men  in 
faculty,  only  less  in  degree;  and  with  Lamartine,  I  have  thought 
that  '  women  have  a  fiber  more  in  the  heart  and  a  cell  less  in 
the  brain  than  men. '  ' 

"I  am  too  tired  to  dispute  the  proposition,"  yawned  Mrs. 
Notion,  as  she  rested  her  head  on  her  husband's  shoulder.  "In 
fact,  I  feel  glad  that  you  are  bigger  and  stronger  than  I,  and  that 
I  can  lean  upon  you,  and  delight  in  the  consciousness  that  you 
are  able  to  take  care  of  me  when  I  need  to  be  cared  for.  There 
have  been  times  when  I  differed  from  Longfellow,  but  to-night  I 
agree  with  him  that — 

"  'As  unto  the  bow  the  cord  is, 
So  unto  the  man  is  woman, 
Though  she  bends  him,  she  obeys  him, 
Though  she  draws  him,  yet  she  follows, 
Useless  each  without  the  other!  '  " 


INDEX 


ABORTION,  Obligatory  in  For- 
mosa, 110. 

Abortions,  Prevalence  of  in  Amer- 
ica, 26-32. 

Advertisements,  Indecent,  26. 

Amazons,  104. 

"American  Commonwealth,"  Quo- 
tation from,  113. 

Anderson,  Dr.  Elizabeth  Gary, 
Quotations  from,  95,  96. 

Anthony,  Susan  B.,    16,  258. 

Antonia  Flaxilla,  Fidelity  of,  80. 

Arnold,  Matthew,  Quotation  from, 
137. 

Augustine,  Quotation  from,  109. 

"A  Woman's  Thoughts  about 
Women,"  86. 

gALZAC,  Quotation  from,  200. 
Barkaloo,  Lemma,  215. 

Barton,  Clara,  16. 

Bates,  Josephine,  Quotation  from 
207. 

Bebel,  August,  Quotations  from, 
103,  104,  108,  163. 

Beecher,  Catherine  E.,  Quotation 
from,  186. 

Bell,  Dr.  J.,  Quotations  from,  29.  30. 

Birth-rate,  Causes  of  Its  Decrease, 
22-24. 

Black  well,  Elizabeth,  211. 

Blackwell,  Emily,  211. 

Blake,  Mrs.  Lilic  Devereux,  Quo- 
tations from,  47,  48,  83,  240,  247, 
261. 

Brown,  Antoinette  L.,  238. 

Boleyn,  Anne,  Benevolence  of,  81. 

Bonheur,  Rosa,  216,  217. 


Books  about  Women,  199. 

Bowles,    Rev.    Ada    C.,    Quotation 

from,  97. 

Brudwell,  Myra,  215. 
Brent,  Margaret,  215. 
Bronte,  Charlotte,  Quotation  from, 

206. 

Bryce,  James,  113. 
Buckle,  Quotation  from,  253. 
Byron,  Quotation  from,  85. 

CAMPBELL,  Helen,  Quotations 
from,  159,  162,  163,  171. 

Carlyle,  Quotations  from,  75,  141. 

Catherine,  Empress  of  Russia,  Gen- 
erosity of,  81. 

Celto,  Quotation  from,  72. 

Channing,  Quotation  from,  220. 

Chase,  Marne  J.,  16. 

Chapman,  Maria  Weston,  16. 

Child,  Lydia  Maria,  16. 

Childless  Wives,  Their  Tendency  to 
Become  Selfish,  43-45. 

Children,  Their  Mission,  Purpose, 
and  Place  in  the  General  Plan,  64. 

Christian  Science,  96. 

Churchill,  Arabella.  119. 

Church-members,  Their  Ignorance  of 
Sexual  Truths,  34. 

Co-education,  Objections  to,  191. 

Colleges,  Co-education  in,  190. 

Columbus,  Christopher,  76,  77. 

Comstock,  Elizabeth,  16. 

Condorcet,  Quotation  from,  246. 

Cook,  Dr.,  of  Cedar  Rapids,  Quota- 
tions from,  28,  29. 

Cooper,  Sarah  B.,  Quotation  from, 
254. 

(271) 


272 


INDEX. 


Cope,  Mrs.  Edward,  16. 

Corneille,  Quotation  from,  262. 

Council  of  Macon,  109. 

Countess  of  Withsdale,  Heroism  of, 
78. 

Courtezans,  Celebrated  Greek,  102. 
103. 

Courtezans,  Celebrated  Roman,  104. 

Courts,  Their  Decisions  Relative  to 

.    Women,  239,  240. 

Crandall,  Prudence,  16. 

Crepaz,  Adele  Quotations  from,  195, 
196,  200. 

Croly,  Mrs.  F.  C.,  Quotation  from, 
263. 

"Crowning  Sin  of  the  Age,"  Quo- 
tation from,  30,  31. 

DARLING,  Grace,  heroism  of,  80. 
Daughters  Not  Desired  in  China, 
110. 

Daughters  of  Milton,  141. 
Davis,  Pauline  W.,  Quotation  from, 

96. 

De  Goncourt,  Quotation  from,  89. 
De  Maistre,  Quotation  from,  154. 
Demosthenes,  Quotation  from,  102. 
De  Quincey,  Quotations  from,  123, 

186. 

De  Segur,  Quotation  from,  267. 
de    Sevigne,     Madame,     Quotation 

from,    145. 
Deterioration    of    Modern    Societv, 

221,    222. 

Dickenson,  Anna,  16. 
Disobedience  of  Children,  23.    222 

223,  225,  232. 

Disraeli,  Quotation  from,  77. 
Divorce    Laws    in    United     States, 

Their  Unfairness  to  Husbands,  96, 

97. 

Divorces  in  China,  110. 
Divorces  in  Japan,  110. 
Divorces,  Number  of  in  United 

States,  58. 
Dix,  Dorothea,  16. 
Domestic  Industry,  Its  Evils,  162. 
Drink    Habit,  Its    Increase    among 

Women,  247. 

Druggists,  Temptations-  of,  32,  33. 
Durrant  Case,  63,  64. 


FDHOLM,    Mrs.  Charleton,  Quo- 
~*  tation  from,  167,  168. 
Education   of  Women,   Should    Be 

Distinctive,  193. 

Egnatia  Maximilla,   Fidelity  of,  80. 
Elective   Franchise    Not  a  "Natural 

Right,  256. 

Electric  Carriages,  145,  146. 
Electricity,  Era  of,  152. 
Elevator,  "The,  147. 
Elizabeth,    Queen  of  England,    75, 

76. 
"Eliot,   George."  Quotations  from, 

256,  261. 
Emerson,  Ralph    Waldo   Quotation 

from,  241,  242. 
Eminent  Women,  187-189. 
Equality  of  the  Sexes,  Distinguished 

Women's  Objections  to,  194. 
Euripides,  Quotations  from,  25,  72. 

pAWCETT,  Philippa,  217. 

Female  Competition,  Results  of 
157. 

"Female  Offender,"  The,  72. 

Ferdinand,  King  of  Spain    76 

Fletcher,  Alice  C.,  16. 

Florence  Crittenton  Homes,  169. 

Foltz,  Clara  S.,  216. 

French  Revolution,  69-71. 

Fry,  Elizabeth,  16. 

Family,  Definitions  of,  19,  20. 

Fitch,  George  L.,  Quotation   from, 
ol. 

Foote,  Lucinda,  190. 

"  From  Japan  to  Germany,  "  Quota- 
tion from,  166,  167. 

QAGE,  Susanna,  218. 

Gall,  Quotation  from,  82,  83. 

Galpin,  Mrs.  Kate  Tupper,  Quota- 
tion from,  91,  92. 

Gardener,     Helen     H.,     Quotation 
from,  91. 

Garrison,  Helen  E.,  17. 

Gautier,  Theophile,  264. 

Gilbert,  Linda,  16. 

Girl  Car  Conductors  in  Chile   146 

Girls  in  India,  110,  111. 

Girls,  Price  of  Circassian,  112. 


INDEX. 


273 


Girl  Students,  AVhv  Thev  Generally 

Excel  Boys  184,' 185. 
(Joctlie,  (Quotation  from,  200. 
<  inltlsinith,  Oliver,  Quotation  from, 

262. 

Gordon,  Laur;t  L)e  Force,  216. 
Grew,  Mary,  16. 
Griggs,  Edward  11.,  Quotations  from, 

212,  213,  25:;,  254. 
Grimke,  Angelina,  16. 
Grimke,  Sarah,  16. 

J-jALE,  Prof.,  of  Chicago,  (Quota- 
tion from,  29. 
Hale,  Sarah  J.,  Cited,  189. 
Hall,  Mary,  215. 
Hamilton,     Gail,    (Quotation     from, 

263, 

Hanchette,  .lane,  Bravery  of,  81. 
Heinzen,  Karl,  264. 
IF -my  V11I,  of  England,  75. 
Higgmson,  Betty,  190. 
"  History  of  Prostitution,"   by  ~W. 

W.  Sanger,  105. 
Hoggan,  Frances,  218. 
Eolley,  Sallie,  16. 
Holloway,     Laura    C.,    Quotations 

from,  114,   115,    118,   119,   12H. 
Home  Life,  Influence-    Which  An- 

'i.ixe,  35,  36. 

Home,  the  Sphere  "f  Woman,  S,  12. 
Howitt,   Mary,  (Quotation   from,    H'>. 
HU-J.-O.   Victor,   (Quotation  from,  263. 
Mulct  t.  A  Ha  M.,  215. 
Hunt  Harriet  K.,  211. 
Huxley.  (Quotation  from,  263. 

JNFAXT1C1DE  in  Ameriea,  2!),  :!1. 
Infanticide  in  China,  110. 

Inventions  of  Women,  148,  1~>1. 

Inventions,  Their  Benefit  to  Women, 
145-153. 

Inventions,  Their  Far-reaching  Ef- 
fect, 155,  156. 

Isabella,  Queen  of  Spain,  76. 

JACKSON,  Helen  Hunt,  16. 

Jacohi,  Mary  Putnam,  Cited,  210. 
Joan  of  Arc,  74. 
Joest,  W.,  Quotation  from,  166,  167. 


Johnson.    Samuel,   Quotation   from 
218. 

.1 1 nies,  Mary  C.,  16. 

Josephine,  Empress  of  France,  Ami- 
ability of,  81. 

Joubert,  Quotation  from,  224. 


Alphonse.  Quotation  from 
261. 

Kelley,  Abby,  16. 
Kellogg,    Martin,    Quotation    from, 

256,  ^57. 

Kepley,  Ada  H.,  215. 
Kerscnbaunmer,   Dr.    Kosa,   Quota- 

tion from,  201. 
Kies,  Mary,  First  Woman  Patentee 

in  U.  8.,  151. 
Kowalewski,  Songa,  218. 


,  Christine,  218. 

Lad}r  Clerks,  Superiority  of,  181. 
Lady  .lane  Gray,  74. 
Lamartine,  Quotation  from,  269. 
Large    Families,    Unpopularity    "!' 

54. 
Large  Families  •/•/•/•«/<*  Small   Ones, 

38-43. 

Lawlessness  in  Politics,  229,  230. 
Lawlessness  in  the  Church,  228. 
Lawlessne>s  in  the  Home,  221-228. 
Lawlessness  in  the  Pulpit,  230. 
Lawlc.-sness.  \{<  Origin  in  the  Fam- 

ily, 232. 
Lawlessness    of    Corporations,    228, 

229. 

Lawlessness  ,.f  Nations,  231,  232. 
Lawh^-m-—  of  I'ulilic  Oilicial.-,  '2l'S. 
Lawlessno-  of  tlie  Liijiior  Men,  229. 
Lawle.-.-nr.-s  of  tin-  I'n->,  230. 
Lawlessness  of  AVorkingmen,  229. 
Lea,  Fanny,  16. 
Lcdyanl,  Quotation  from,  70,  71. 
Lemennais,  (Quotation  tVmn,  262. 
Lock  wood,  Bclva  Ann,  215. 
I^ombrosu,  Dr.,  <)untation   from,   I'l. 
L<>ngfelluw.  Quotation  from,  269. 
Lord  BnmghamV  Act,  238. 
Lord    Lyttelton,    Quotation     from, 

233. 
Love,  How  It  Increases  with  Exer- 

cise, 43,  44. 


274 


INDEX. 


P1ACHINERY,  Its  Equalizing 
Tendencies,  146.  152. 

Mackav,  Charles,  etiolation  from, 
69. 

Madame  de  Mouchy,  Self-sacrifice 
of,  82. 

Madame  de  Stael,  266. 

Madame  Grimaldi,  Courage  of,  81. 

Madame  Malezoy,  Courage  of,  81. 

Madame  Ragotzin,  218. 

Madame  Roland,  Courage  of,  81. 

Mademoiselle  dela  Charce,  Intrepid- 
ity of,  81. 

Mademoiselle  Delleglace,  Filial  De- 
votion of,  82. 

"Maiden  Tribute  to  Modern  Bab- 
ylon," Quotation  from,  166. 

Maid  of  Saragossa,  Heroism  of,  81. 

Male  Housekeepers,  179. 

Mansfield,  Arabella  A.,  215. 

Man,  Stronger  than  Woman,  96. 

Maria  Helena  Elizabeth,  Sister  of 
Louis  XVI,  Self-sacrifice  of,  82. 

Maria  Theresa,  Empress  of  Austria, 
Bravery  of,  81. 

Marriageable  Men,  Their  Decrease 
in  Number,  180. 

Mary,  Queen  of  England,  75. 

Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  75. 

Mar-on,  Otis  T.,  Quotations  from,  57, 
58,  90. 

Massachusetts,  Census  of,  31. 

Ma-Milder,  Quotation  from,  15. 

Mati-mity,  Should  Always  be  Vol- 
untarily Assumed,  53. 

Men's  Ideal  of  Womanhood,  9,   11. 

Men's  Inability  to  Bear  Pain,  48. 

Michelet,  Quotation  from,  96. 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  Quotations  from, 
198,  252,  253. 

Mill,  James,  129. 

Milton,  Quotations  from,  7,  2-1-1. 

Mirabeau,  Quotation  from,  89. 

Mi—  Muloch,  Quotations  from,  86, 
87,  98. 

Mitchell,  Maria,  190,  217. 

Montagu,   Mary   Wortley,  1H9,  264. 

Montgomery,  James,  Quotation  from, 
114. 

More,  Hannah,  188. 

Motherhood  of  God,  97. 


Mother  of  Anthony,  79. 

Mother  of  Arkwright,  150. 

Mother  of  Augustine — St.   Monica, 

109,  135,  136.  137. 
Mother  of  Beethoven,  142. 
Mother  of  Burton,  142. 
Mother  of  Byron,  142. 
Mother  of  Carlyle,  140. 
Mother  of  Chateaubriand,  142. 
Mother  of  Cowper,  Ho. 
Mother  of  Daniel   \\YMer,  134. 
Mother  of  Dickens,  139,  140. 
Mother  of  Fenelon,  142. 
Mother  of  Gambetta,  141. 

Mother  of  GarfleW,  131-133. 

Mother  of  Goethe,  140. 

Mother  of  the  Gracchi,  120,  121. 

Mother  of  Grant,  119. 

Mother  of  Gray,  142. 

Mother  of  Humboldt,  140. 

Mother  of  John  Quincv  Adams,  ML', 
143. 

Mother  of  Kant,  141. 

Mother  of  Lamartine,  1-10. 

Mother  of  Lincoln,  129-131. 

Mother  of  Luther,  137,  138. 

Mother  of  Madame  de  Stael,  140. 

Mother  of  Mendelssohn,  142. 

Mother  of  the  Napiers,  121,  122.. 

Mother  of  Napoleon,  lKi-118. 

Mot  her  of  Richard  Brinslev  Sheridan, 
140. 

Mother  of  Kichter,  140. 

Mother  of  Robert  Burns,  141. 

Mother  of  Samuel  Johnson,  141. 

Mother  of  Schiller,  142. 

Mother  of  "Stonewall"  Jackson, 
124-126. 

Mother  of  Thackeray,  1  lo. 

.Mother  of  Thomson,  ML'. 

Mother  of  Troll. »pe,  140. 

Mother  of  the  Wesley.-,  i:;s,  1,39. 

Mother  of  Washington,  115,  116. 

Mother  <>f  Watt,  Ifk). 

Mothers  of  Inventors,  150. 

Mott,  Lucretia,  16,  238. 

Mr.  Notion,  charged  with  Incon- 
stancy, 62. 

Mrs.   Jameson,  Quotation   from,  %. 

Mrs.  Lucy  Hutchinson,  Her  Heroism 
and  Conjugal  Devotion,  82. 


INDEX . 


275 


MAPOLEON,  Quotations  from,  90, 

IK),  117. 

Now  Hampshire,  Birth  Rate  in,  30. 
"Nineteenth    Century,"    Quotation 

from,  194. 

"  Noble  Deeds  of  Women,"  78. 
North,  Marianne,  218. 
Nuremberg,  Women  Hod-carriers  of, 

100. 

QRIGEN,  Quotation  from,  109. 

Ormerod,  Eleanor  A.,  218. 
Ossoli,  .Margaret  Fuller,  10. 
Ostrogonki,    Quotation    from,    242, 

24:i. 
Otway,  Quotation  from,  50. 

pALMER,  Margaretta,  217. 

Parasites,  Tendency  of  Childless 
Wives  to  Become,  40. 

Paternal  Authority,  Its  Importance 
225. 

Penal  Code  of  California,  26,  27. 

IV re  Lacordaire,  Quotation  from,  107. 

Phillips,  Ann  Green,  10. 

Phillips,  Wendall,  Quotation  from, 
238. 

Physicians,  Crimes  of,  28. 

Plutt,  Julia,  218. 

Pier  Family  of  Lawyers,  216. 

Polyandry ,  Prevalent  in  Thibet,  Cey- 
lon, and  Parts  of  Africa,  104. 

Powers,  H.  H.,  Quotations  from,  213, 
268. 

Prejudice  against  Large  Families,  18. 

Prevention  of  Offspring,  Its  Kvil  Ef- 
fects, 47. 

Prevention  of  Offspring,  When.  Jus- 
tifiable, 50,  51. 

Prior,  Margaret,  10. 

Procurers,  165. 

Prominence  of  Women,  Its  Signifi- 
cance, 150. 

Prostitution,  103-169. 

Prostitution,  Its  Causes,  168,  169. 

Pulpit,  Its  Criminal  Silence,  33. 

Putnam,  Caroline  F.,  16. 

£ATHEAN  Herpin,  Exploit  of, 80. 

Reform — Different  Schemes  of,  155. 
Revolution  in  the  Relations  of  the 
Sexes,  175,  176. 


Rollins,  Alice  Wellington,  Quota- 
tion from,  206,  207. 

Rousseau,  Quotations  from,  59,  216. 

Ryan,  Chief  Justice,  Quotation  from, 
89,  90. 

"SACERDOTAL  Celibacy,"  109. 
Salaman,  Malcolm  G.,  Quota- 
tions from,  60,  61,  62. 
Salic  Law,  233,  234. 
.Salvation  Army,  Its  Incompatibility 

with  Home  Life,  34,  35. 
Sanger,  W.  W.,  Cited,  105,  164. 
"Satan  inSociety,"  Quotations  from, 

100,  101,  111,   112. 
Schopenhauer,  Comments  upon,  197. 
Schopenhauer,  Quotation  from,  197. 
Science  as  an  Aid  to  Housekeepers, 

12-14. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  129. 
Servant  Girls,  173-176. 
Severance,  Sarah  M.,  Quotation  from, 

2-55. 

Sex  Differences, Attractiveness  of,199. 
Sexual  Love,  Its  Perversion  the  Clause 

of  Divorces,  etc.,  Cl,  52. 
Sexual  Love,  Its  purpose,  47. 
Shakespeare,  Quotations   from,  170, 

204. 
Shaw,  Anna,  Quotations  from,  249, 

252. 

Sheppard,  Margareta,  16. 
Small  Families  versus  Large  Ones, 

38-43. 

Smiles,  Samuel,  Quotation  from,  38. 
Smith,  Sydney,  Quotation  from,  71. 
Social  Gravitation,  36. 
Spiritualism,  96. 
Stanton,  Elizabeth  Cady,  249,   250; 

Quotations    from,   91,   92,   93,  94; 

Her  Advocacy  of  Woman  Suffrage . 

238. 

Starling,  Elizabeth,  78. 
Stoddard,    R.   H.,    Quotation    from, 

181. 

Stone,  Lucy,  16,  238. 
Stowc.  Harriet  Beecher,  16,  204. 
"Subjection  of  Woman,''  Quotation 

from,  198. 
"Subjection  of  Woman,"  Reply  to, 

199. 
Superstitions,  65-67. 


270 


INDEX. 


TAYLOR,  Jeremy,  Quotation  from 

100. 

Telegraph,  The,  146. 
Telephone,  The,  146,  147. 
Tennyson,  Quotations  from,  128,  170. 
Tertullian,  Quotation  from,  108. 
Thackeray,  Quotation  from,  123. 
Thales,  Quotation  from,  73. 
Thayer,  Oliva  Ann,  Quotation  from, 

97. 
"The   Emancipation    of   Women," 

Quotations  from,  195,  196,  200. 
"  The   Mothers   of  Great   Men   and 

Women,1'    Quotations   from,    114, 

115. 

Theosophy,  96. 
"The    Traffic  in    Girls,"    Quotation 

from,  167,  168. 
Typewriter,  The,  147.   . 

JJTTMAN,  Barbara,  150. 

yiKAGOES,  224. 

Von    Stein,    Lorenz,    Quotation 

from,  196. 
Voters,   Frauds  against,  229,  230. 

\yARD,  Lester  ¥.,  cited,  263. 
Ward,  Mrs.  Humphrey,  204. 

Welcome  Children,  Their  Superior- 
ity, 54. 

Widows  in  India,  110,  111. 

Wife  of  Cromwell,  118. 

Wife  of  Disraeli,  134,  135. 

Wife  of  Duke  of  Ferrara,  Courage 
of,  81. 

Wife  of  Duke  of  Marlborough,  118, 
119. 

Wife  of  Edward  the  First,  Conjugal 
Devotion  of,  80. 

Wife  of  Elias  How.-.  150. 

Wifeof  Helvidius  Priscus,  Constancy 
of,  80. 

Wife  of  Henry  the  Sixth  of  England, 
MIT  Geniu.-  and  Courage,  si. 

Wife  of   Lentulu-    Crustellus.  Con- 
stancy of.  si  i. 

Wife  of  M:ir-li:il    Munich,  HeroNm 
of,  7s.  79. 

Wife  of  Milton,  77. 


Wife  of  Robert,  Duke  of  Normandy, 
Self- sacrifice  of,  ,SO. 

Wife  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  143. 

Wife  of  Theodosius  the  Great,  Mag- 
nanimity of.  79. 

Willard,  Francos,  17. 

Wit  of  Women,  207,  208. 

Wives,   Rebelliousness  of.  2-_)-J,  •1-11 . 

Wives  of  Inventors,  150. 

Wives,  Subordination  of,  8:1,  M. 

Wives,  Their  Ascendency  over  Their 
Husbands  in  America,  !»4,  !•:">. 

\Vollstonecraft,    Mary,  189. 

Woman,  Extreme  in  Good  and  Kvil 
r>!>,  60 

Woman,  Her  (Condition   in   Ancient 

Greece,  102,  103. 
Woman,  Her  Condition   in   Ancient 

Rome,  103,  104. 

Woman,  Her  111  Treatment  by  An- 
cient Nations.  101. 
Woman,  Her  Superiority  to  Man,  ss. 
Woman.  Impressionability  of,  63,  64. 
Woman,  Inconstancy  of,  59,  62. 
"Woman  in  the    Pa.-t,    Pn-ent and 

Future,"  103. 
Womanly  Occupations,  172 
Woman,  Physical  Structure  of,  56-69. 
Woman's    Bible,    Quotations    from, 

92,  93. 
Woman    Suffrage,    Arguments 

against,  256-268. 
Woman  Suffrage,    Ke,-i-"ii-  lor,  ~24'i 

255. 
Woman     Suffrage,    Testimonials    to 

Its  Value,  236,  237. 
Woman  Suffrage,  The  Struggle  for, 

237,  238. 

Woman,  Temperament  of,  59. 
'•  Woman,    through    a    Man's     Kye 

glasses,"  60. 
Woman's     Prominence    in     Modern 

Religious  Movements,  !)7. 
Woman's    Recent  Invasion  of  Ne\v 

Industrial  Fields,  176,  177. 
"  Woman's  Share  in   Primitive  Cul-' 

ture,"  57. 

Women  as  Clerks,  etc..  !•!). 
Women    Are   IJettor  Than  Mm.  I'-H'.. 
Women,   Kminenci'  of  in  the  Differ- 
ent Centuries,  187-1*!'- 


INDEX . 


277 


Women  in  America,  Their  Monopo- 
lization of  Social  Pleasures,  9". 

Women  in  America,  Their  Growing 
Sense  of  Equality,  183,  184. 

Women  in  America,  Their  Superior 
Intelligence,  185. 

Women  in  Journalism,  209. 

Women  in  Literature,  204-207. 

Women  in  Law,  215,  216. 

Women  in  Medicine,  210-215. 

Women  in  Mohammedan  Countries, 
111,  112. 

Women  in  the  Ministry,  218,  219. 

Women  Inventors,  148, 149, 150, 151. 

Women,  Political  Fanaticism  of  68- 
70. 

Women,  Political  Rights  Acquired 
by,  234-236. 

Women  Proportion  of  Unmarried, 
157. 


Women,  Their  Increasing  Tendency 

to  Drunkenness,  162. 
Women  Workers  in  Europe,  159. 
Women  Workers,  Statistics  of,  157, 

158. 
Women  Workers,  Their   Condition 

in  America,  159-162. 
Women  Workers,  Their  Low  Wages, 

158. 
Women  Workers,  Motives  of  Some, 

181,  182. 
Women's   Christian   Temperance 

Union,  17. 
Women's  Clubs  and  Societies,  Their 

Superiority  to  Men's,  201-203. 
Women's  Hospitals,  Statistics  of,  21 4. 
Women's  World  Congress,  32. 
Working-women   in  Germany,   105. 

YOUTHFUL  Appearing  Mothers, 
17. 


IT" 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


fD 


REC'D  LD-UW. 

QIOCT1819* 


JUL 


(/> 

UJ 

o 


.C 

o 

CO 

<u 

0) 


w  c  ^ 

#  §  « 

CO    O  k. 

UJ  -J  QJ 

o 


in 


CD 


< 

o 


10  «i 


S  o 


A     000  097  031     9 


Univers 
Sout 

Lib 


